When you set up a trail camera out in the woods, you never quite know what you’re gonna see.
Hopefully, a big ol’ buck comes passing through, but maybe you’re trying to find something else. Catching a bear walking straight in front of the camera can certainly feel like a win, however, capturing this specific bear on trail camera must’ve felt like winning the lottery .
We’re talking about am extremely rare piebald black bear, meaning it’s both black and white… not unlike a panda, or even a cow.
Piebald bears are black or brown bears possessing an extremely rare recessive genetic mutation that causes unpigmented, white patches of fur mixed into their natural dark coat. Often confused with albinism (a total loss of pigmentation), piebaldism is a genetic pigmentation condition that results in partial loss of pigmentation. For a bear to be born piebald, both parents must carry the specific recessive gene.
Piebaldism is also completely distinct from the leucism found in Kermode bears (often called “Spirit bears”). While Kermode bears are native to the coastal rainforests of British Columbia and have a mutation that turns their entire coat creamy white or blonde, piebald bears exhibit a distinct two-toned, patchy pattern.
While piebaldism is relatively common in domestic animals like horses, dogs, and cows, and we sometimes see it in wild mammals like deer, it is almost entirely undocumented in wild bear populations. They are considerably rarer than albino bears or fully white-colored bears.
Because they are so uncommon, confirmed sightings usually make headlines, and there has only been one notable sighting in the past handful of years. The most famous recent footage was captured by a trail camera on the Shoalwater Bay Reservation near Tokeland in Washington State. The video showed a healthy black bear with massive white splotches across its head, back, and sides, initially causing viewers to wonder if it was a lost panda or a hoax.
Piebald black bears are astronomically rare, so much so that wildlife biologists do not have an exact mathematical statistic (like “1 in a million”) for the odds of seeing one. They are so uncommon that there simply isn’t enough data to establish a statistical baseline. More than one in a billion? One in a trillion? Nobody knows, but it’s a lot.
The vast majority of wildlife biologists, park rangers, and avid bear hunters will go their entire lives without ever seeing a piebald bear, either in person or on a trail camera.
I’ll confess that at first glance, the video really does look fake, but this actually was filmed prior to the rampant use of AI nonsense… it’s 100% legit. The panda-like coloring really does make for a once in a lifetime bear sighting.
