Of all my readings for this week one article caught my attention and I enjoyed learning about an animal I had never seen or heard of before. This month in National Geographic, there is an article (with lots of pictures of course) titled “Spirit Bear” by Bruce Barcott, about a type of black bear whose fur is the color white, called the Spirit Bear. It’s due to a recessive gene, “the same gene associated with red hair and fair skin in humans” (p. 46). Bears are my favorite animal so naturally I was intrigued by an article about bears. The pictures are very beautiful because the Spirit bears live in the British Columbia rainforest with beautiful green, mossy trees and ground coverings. The Spirit bear’s white fur does give them advantage when fishing during the day because “the salmon are less concerned about a white object as seen from below the surface” (p. 47). There is a great picture of two black bears (one has white fur and the other has black fur) fighting over a fishing spot in the river. The First Nations did hunt the black furred black bears, but they never hunted the white furred black bears. The article does not explain why the First Nations did not hunt the Spirit bears, but it is believed the First Nations saved the lives of the Spirit bears because they never spoke of them to European fur hunters. In fact the First Nations do not normally talk about Spirit bears, the article calls it an early form of “environmental protection” (p. 41). The pictures really captured the article for me and the Spirit bear seems to be a hidden treasure of North America.
