Washington Trail Cam Captures Incredibly Rare Footage Of Black & White Piebald Bear

Piebald bear

When you set up a trail camera out in the woods, catching a massive bear walking straight in front of the camera can feel like a win.

However, capturing this specific bear on trail camera must’ve felt like winning the lottery for this person.

According to Outdoor Life, this wild video footage comes out of Washington State, where you can see a black bear walking straight across the area in front of where the camera is located.

However, this isn’t your average black bear. We’re talking about a piebald black bearmeaning it has black and white spots all over its body.

The video’s description states that this was recorded on the Shoalwater Bay Reservation near Tokeland, Washington, which is in the southwest corner of the state.

I’ll admit, the second I saw this video I had no clue what this thing was, as it looked like a hog and a cow had a love child at first glance. Maybe even a panda?

But, you realize upon further examination that this creature is the perfect shape of a black bear.

Piebald is a genetic condition where some parts of the skin, fur or hair lack pigmentation, which usually results in some kind of black and white, or brown and white spots. These color patterns can be found in a number of different animals including deer, horses, dogs, and more.

Not to be confused with albinism, which is a total lack of pigmentation, albino critters have red eyes and completely white coloration.

Needless to say, this person really lucked out with this wild discovery… can’t say I’ve seen one of these before. I’ve seen completely white leucistic bears, also known as “Spirit Bears,” among Native Americans, but never a panda-looking one like this.

There is a subspecies of black bears, called Kermode bears, where white fur is much more common (10-20%) however, they are almost completely exclusive to parts of British Columbia, Canada, which makes this sighting in Washington even more wild.

And even among the Kermode bears of Canada, there’s believed to only be somewhere between 100 and 500 in existence.

Pretty damn cool.

Check it out:

@nativedude1 #spiritbear ♬ Peace of Soul – Ramol

Here’s another angle:

@nativedude1 #blackbear #spiritbear #swwashingtoncoast #nature #shoalwaterbay #wildanimals ♬ Bad To The Bone – George Thorogood & The Destroyers

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