Rare spirit bear cub living near B.C. highway stirs excitement, concern, as word of its existence spreads

Shelley Lindaas has long dreamed of seeing a Kermode bear cub in person.

An amateur wildlife photographer based in Terrace, near B.C.'s north coast, she spends much of her free time hiking the backwoods and camped out with camera equipment in one spot for hours at a time, waiting to catch a glimpse.

But her goal of seeing the rare, light-furred variant of a black bear came almost accidentally this year as she was driving along the highway and spotted the cub, with its family, just off the road.

"They were sitting right on the highway," Lindaas said. "I get unusually excited when I see any wildlife ... but I was off the charts excited."

Kermodes, also known as spirit bears, are a subset of black bears that live in B.C.'s North and Central Coast regions. Their unique colouring occurs due to a recessive gene passed on through black bears. The official animal of British Columbia, a recent survey estimated their population to be fewer than 500, making them one of the rarest bear sightings in the world.

For generations, First Nations limited information about the bears out of concern they would be targeted for hunting and trapping, but in more recent years some groups have taken to highlighting their existence as a way of raising wider awareness about the need for ecosystem management on B.C.'s coast.

And that debate, about how best to handle it when an animal many dream of seeing is discovered, is playing out in miniature in Terrace where many are celebrating sightings of the cub while others worry posting photos and video of it will put the animal at risk by drawing too many people to the region.

Lindaas, who grew up in the northwest and whose father was a hunter and trapper, didn't see her first Kermode until 2023, after years of exploration in the region. Since then, she's managed to track a few bears and document them through her Instagram account and a calendar she sells locally.

But, she said, she doesn't generally share her photos until after she's confident the bears have moved away from the area she spotted them in.

"I always wait until August before I post pictures, and I get bombarded by other wildlife photographers about where I took them," she said.

"If I have friends in the area, I'll tell them, but I try to keep it quiet."

She made an exception in posting the photo of the cub because there had already been so many other sightings and posts on social media that it seemed "everyone knew."

Indeed, a search through local Facebook groups reveals multiple photos and videos of the bear, along with its mother and two black bear siblings.

Along with those posts are comments from locals worried about too many people getting too close to the bear, a concern that has been amplified by the conservation officer service, which put out a message urging people to give the bears space and not do anything — such as feeding — that might acclimatize them to human contact.