The ghost bear, also known as the Kerode bear, is a rare white subspecies of black bear found in the coastal rainforests of British Columbia, Canada, where approximately 500 white bears exist (about 1 in 10 black bears). These bears developed during the ice age as a genetic mutation and are named after zoologist Francis Kerode who began studying them around 1900. Despite their unique white fur, they share the same omnivorous diet and behaviors as black bears, primarily feeding on salmon during the spawning season. Scientific studies suggest that white bears may have an advantage in fishing because salmon cannot see their white fur, potentially explaining why Kerode bears tend to catch more salmon than their black counterparts.
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A >> the Catmy National Park in Alaska. A cold and forbidding landscape, but of unimaginable beauty nevertheless, and it's often cloudy.
The brown bears have left the forests during the few summer months to share the best spots to catch salmon along the rivers.
They are the unchallenged kings here.
But there is another bear in this area that's very seldom seen, the glacia bear. We will follow them and continue further south to British Columbia for another phenomenon, the white ghost bear.
The Catmy National Park is located in southwestern Alaska and comprises 7,259 square miles of protected area.
It's a virtual powder keg with 15 active volcanoes. There are daily earthquakes.
Alaska is still the last frontier for many. Shrouded in freedom and adventure.
The only way to the bears is by plane.
There are no roads or tracks so far away from civilization.
Hallow Bay is one of the top 10 areas to view bears. Landing on the beach is difficult and dangerous.
Derek Brodman, our pilot and guide, is one of the best. But even for him, it takes a lot of concentration to safely land between the salmon rivers.
Most often, it's sea fog that appears out of the blue that makes landing impossible, which is exactly what's happening right now.
This is not a problem for Derek. He just tries another location.
here. It should be possible.
There's obviously no air strip and he is only able to land on the beach during low tide.
Spring and summer in Alaska are very short. This is the time that the bears roam through the area from the Arctic coastline all the way to the Pacific.
They're here to hunt salmon. At least they're trying to.
Every summer, salmon migrate into the rivers where they were born in order to spawn.
Nobody really wants to share their spot along the beach. There's great competition.
The sea otterters are pretty flexible with their menu. They like clams, sea urchins, and fish.
Their daily program is always the same: hunt, feed, and sleep.
Otter will meticulously search every part of the kelp forest in case they find a hidden oyster.
The otter are masters of using tools with their front paws in order to feed.
There are few other animals that are so creative.
The table is set, but salmon is their favorite. We're watching them in slow motion.
The animal kingdom in Alaska is quite spectacular. The bald eagle has a strong presence here.
It's the heraldic animal of northern America.
A female brown bear has shown up in the delta with her cub. She has to be careful because the male bears will kill the young of their competitors in order to mate with the female and further their own genes.
All of a sudden, another female starts to hunt successfully.
He hasn't even realized what's happening around him.
This is the first time the two cubs are confronted with live prey. They're only 6 months old and very playful and clumsy. They have to learn to handle live prey.
The salmon swimming into the rivers have been migrating for quite a while. Some have come from as far away as the Pacific and have been traveling for 2,500 m in order to swim back up the river to where they were born.
The bears can only fish during low tide.
The water has to be low enough for them to see the salmon swimming by. Not as easy as it sounds.
It takes finesse, and not all of them have it yet. They have to learn to fish, and some bears will never be great at it.
Nobody knows how exactly the salmon know how to find their river. The fishes will not feed during their journey up the river.
Too bad. Right time, but wrong place.
It's very unusual that mothers with cubs hunt for salmon. The danger to their young is too great, but nevertheless, they are here regardless. Blue muscles are hidden deep inside the sand, which are very high in protein as well. Right now, there are too many males around, so she can't dig for muscles.
Although, this male seems to have no interest in her and her cub. He's more interested in a little siesta.
The little bear baby demands the mother's full attention. Bear cubs love to snuggle just like human babies.
Sadly, the female used to have another cub, but it was killed by a large male.
The mosquitoes are quite a plague here.
They also torture the bears, not just us.
This is not very hygienic. Bears are obviously not much concerned with their decorum.
Austrian scientists found out that a female bear mates with several males to avoid having the males come near her cubs later. This way, several males will think that they father the cubs.
54% of females will cuckold their mate in order to secure the cub's survival.
Finally, this herring will do fine, too.
Bears begrudge each other's food, so it's advisable to run away if the hunt is successful.
Scientists estimate the brown bear population in the Catmy to consist of around 2,000 animals.
Hunting brown bears for sport is not welcome in Alaska anymore.
Bears are generally loners, but during the summer months they're forced to become a bit more social at the salmon rivers.
Youthful cockiness can become dangerous, but this male bear is only interested in the salmon.
Unfortunately, not a very successful hunter.
There's lots going on underwater. The salmon males continue chasing away their competition.
It's aggravating. His daily ration should be 20 salmon, but this is not his day.
This bear is more successful.
The female bear has made a capital catch, a halibet. She has to bring the fish to safety quickly.
Both males let to get away with it and look a bit frustrated because of their own meager success again. No fish for him.
We will leave Hollow Bay for now, but we'll later return to the playful cubs.
The teddy bears we all grew up with were modeled on these bears more than 100 years ago.
High above the lowhanging clouds in the ice regions is the best habitat to find the blue grey phantom, the glacia bear.
A study by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game states that there are probably fewer than 100 of these bears left.
Glacia bears are a subspecies of the black bears, and biologists assume that they developed during the ice age in areas that were free of ice.
Alaska's wide and very isolated mountain ranges are a paradise for these animals, but a nightmare for us because it's like trying to find a needle in a haystack.
Would they live around this glacia lake?
We don't know.
A native ranger told us that we needed to start searching up there where the winter makes room for the summer.
Most of Alaska's glacias are retreating.
Between 1 to 3 and 1/2 miles have melted away since 1945, owing to climate change.
Whatever refreezes at night will melt again during the day. The only glaciers that are still growing are much further north.
Like all bears, the glacia bears are also omnivores. They leave the icy regions in the summer and search for fresh greens and berries in the cloudy rainforests.
Bald eagles have plundered a chicken farm. Here, everybody is out for themselves. The young are busy playf fighting in the air.
They have fed quite well, but nevertheless, there's always room for more.
The competition is great.
This bird doesn't bother with the feathers. It goes straight for the chicken legs.
The young will only watch, which means more playtime.
They are masters of flight, but caution is necessary on this overcrowded runway.
This incredible find also draws in others to feed. They are mostly crows, but they can be particularly nasty.
Crows are masters of theft and very clever, but the king of the air is a tad too powerful for them.
It's easy to distinguish the old bald eagles from the young. The birds won't develop their typical white head and tail feathers until their fourth year.
Despite being the heraldic bird of the United States, bald eagles were hunted almost to extinction until 1950. They're protected now, and their numbers have come back quite well. The largest population lives in Alaska.
Hunters weren't the only ones who severely decimated the bald eagle population. The insecticide DDT also killed a large number of the birds.
All of a sudden, the glacia bear appears out of nowhere. Its fur is almost silver with a blue sheen. The perfect adaptation to its environment.
The glacia bear's creation was a fluke of nature because they're really black bears.
In the cold world that they call home, the glacia bears will not find berries to feed on. Therefore, they're searching for them down here. Another surprise, a regular black bear is hiding in the bushes.
Do both of these bears prefer this territory, or is this a regular detour for the black bear into higher regions?
Then they go their separate ways. Was this a surprise meeting? We will never know. Scientists have not been able to find out much about the lives of these mysterious and very secretive bears.
Could he give us the answers to our questions about the blue bears? Unfortunately, he can't talk.
This is what we know about these rare bears. They're predators that also search for berries, roots, and fresh greens in the underbrush, and on occasion also feed on grass.
We have to tread lightly while filming.
The bears can hear noises over 800 ft away. The smallest movement and it will run away.
And then it happens. We make too much noise and the bear takes off back to its own territory.
We are back at sea level.
The summer is especially beautiful this year. Fireweed is blooming and completely covers numerous fields with its exquisite colors.
We are back in Hallow Bay to observe the bare mothers with their cubs.
This little guy is about 5 to 6 months old and will be with his mother for another 2 years. She will take care of him during this time and raise him until he is a young adult.
She lets us get incredibly close.
Typically, bear mothers are very aggressive when they have young.
She keeps on feeding without showing any aggression.
Now in July, it's about time for the young bears to start feeding on solid food.
And this one looks like he has been feeding on greens. Brown bears are very quiet unless they're attacked.
The mother always knows where her young is. Her sense of smell is incredible, but she only leaves the cub alone for short periods of time. It seems that she does not sense danger from us.
This male bear is marking his territory.
Quite necessary in this popular area along the Salmon River.
Another female has come out, followed by two playful cubs.
Playing also means learning. The siblings often communicate by the way they hold their bodies. They show dominance towards each other by standing upright and submission is shown by lowering their head and turning away.
One of the two will be the dominant one in this game.
After all, they are siblings and like each other.
The mother only gets between the two when the play turns too serious.
The female is the only one responsible for raising the cubs. By the way, there are no known sounds the mother makes to call her young.
The cubs stay with the mother for about 3 years. After that, the cubs often stay together for up to another four years.
They're fully grown at 10 years old.
For about a third of the day, the twins are constantly honing their innate skills.
These pictures are very reminiscent of the teddy bears of our childhood, which were named after Theodore Roosevelt because the former American president refused to shoot a bear cub on a hunting trip.
Bears enjoy cult status. They're part of Greek mythology. The Kelts had bear gods, and they're often found in crests.
The beautiful intimacy between mother and cub. It's easy to understand why Teddy Roosevelt refused to shoot such a sweet creature.
Back to reality. There's nothing worse for a young bear than to mess with this particular prey, a North American porcupine.
Thousands of spines equipped with barbs cover the body of these rodents. This is a female with its prickly brood.
Bears that have contact with porcupines are often marked for life. Some observations state that bears have starved to death because they were unable to feed themselves due to the pain of such an encounter.
It's unclear what the porcupines are doing in this Sitka spruce. They typically feed on the fresh young leaves of birch trees.
The spruce doesn't seem to be the right spot after all.
Maybe this female black bear was the reason for a quick escape into the Sitka spruce. The bear mother chases her young up another spruce tree. They're world champion climbers, even at such a young age.
Only the young can climb up trees. The black bear mother is too heavy.
Black bears are a lot smaller than brown bears. Apart from that, they're not that much different in their habits.
The cubs are incredible climbers. They will climb up to the treetop in case of danger and hang on to the smallest of branches.
Black bears live in both the north of the American continent and the Sierra Madre in Mexico.
The mother constantly checks on her youngsters in the tree. We are saying goodbye to the black bears and will try to find one of their cousins, a bear that is white.
Our search for the white bears leads us to the Princess Royal Island, an island off British Columbia.
The only modes of transportation to the island are either by sea plane or by boat. It's nearly 500 acres large, but uninhabited.
Princess Royal Island and its coastal rainforests are always shrouded in clouds.
Scientists claim that the island is the heart of the Great Bear rainforest and they should know.
The rivers are full of salmon.
Wolves, black bears, and grizzlies live in these rainforests, and also the mysterious ghost bear.
Squirrels are everywhere we go.
The isolation of this island with its dense forests may be the main reason why these white bears stayed undetected for so long.
Countless rivers also shape this natural landscape.
Here we find raccoons.
This female raccoon has nothing to worry about, but she's not alone at this river.
These are her young, and they're out on an adventure.
She knows exactly where this little one is hiding, but she's certainly not excited about the territorial adventure excursions that the youngster is engaging in.
It's not always easy to survey one's territory.
The mother has had enough of the baby's escapades and calls it back.
Everybody is at peace again.
The seclusion of this island is certainly the reason for the diversity of life here.
This rainforest is one of the most rainy regions in the world. Up to 120 ines of rain accumulate here every year.
We didn't expect to see a lynx, but they don't seem to be very rare here on the island.
Five different types of salmon live in the rivers here. The sockeye salmon, also called the red salmon, is the most common one. They're on their way to the spawning grounds, just like the salmon in the rivers in Alaska.
Many thousands of fish migrate up the stream. Scientists also call it the red flood.
Before the salmon swim up the rivers, they have to feed and gain weight in order to withstand this strenuous migration.
We can't see the incredible struggle going on underwater. The animals have to fight their way upstream against currents.
Near the river, two moose cows have shown up. They like to feed on the fresh green of the trees rather than the grass because the tree leaves have a higher nutrient content. It's important that they're near the water.
Moose are able to feed underwater and like any sort of aquatic plants probably because of a high content in nutrients.
Their nourishment requirements are very high.
This dipper also likes to be near the water to feed.
Dippers are some of the few song birds that search for food on the bottom of a body of water.
They love to feed on the lavi of cadis flies. The lavi's finely constructed containers do not protect them against the sharp beaks of the birds.
Dippers can swim or walk across the bottom of any body of water. So they disappear only to come up somewhere else along this fascinating river.
There's no lack of dippers here because this river offers a lot of food for everybody.
During their strenuous migration, the salmon also find resting places in between the currents and rapids.
Here, in between the branches of old trees, they can rest and summon new strength.
A bottleneck.
The salmon have to fight their way through here.
With every mile, the river changes its face. Here it's shallow and therefore higher up in the trees. Keen hunters with precision eyes wait for their chance.
Except if someone else is faster again. The riverbed changes shape.
Roaring masses of water shoot through a channel between rocks. Filmed with a slow motion camera.
Water rushes towards the salmon in cascades. They can't escape from here.
They have to climb up in order to continue on their journey.
Underwater, it looks like a true maelstrm.
This is where it becomes tough for the fishes. They shoot up out of the deep, contort, and try to jump as high as possible, but miss their target.
These jumps are not very precise, and more often than not, the salmon fall back into the water or onto rocks and injure themselves.
But they will try over and over again.
And there's somebody else in the river whose only interest is to gain as much weight as possible for the upcoming winter.
This brown bear is not a very experienced fisherman yet.
But then success.
The competition is also struggling.
This is not a salmon, but Master Bruin trying to fish underwater.
His competition has more luck, or probably more skill. Large bears like these feed on 30 salmon a day. The bears come here year after year, right on time for the salmon run, driven by an inner clock. They feed along the river according to a very specific hierarchy.
The salmon run is an incredible natural spectacle. After they spawn, the salmon will die.
Vigorous fishes shoot out of the water and land right in the bear's mouth.
Hundreds of red salmon crowd the rapids.
A delectable buffet ready to be snapped up by the bears.
The furry gourmes feed as much as they can and their cubs also get their fair share.
Princess Royal Island was once inhabited by the Chimshian Indians. The coastal rainforests were holy lands to them.
The Indians were at one with nature in these mysterious spruce forests with their incredible diversity.
This landscape would be nothing without its animal inhabitants. The wild geese have started to breed in the repairarian zones.
Wild geese come here only for a short period of time. As soon as it starts freezing at night, they'll continue on towards warmer climates.
These lodges were built by furry architects, beavers.
A long-eared owl is watching what the beaver is doing.
Aram is a botanical rarity in Europe, but grows in great abundance here.
Is this woodpecker thinking about building another home? Who knows?
Around 350 different kinds of animals live in the coastal rainforests.
Some of them are only visitors for the summer.
We are leaving the idilic repairarian zones.
>> We follow the river further up into higher fog zones where the ghost bear hunts.
All of a sudden, a confrontation that nobody expected. This black bear is in distress.
Wolves, more specifically timber wolves, have entered the bear's territory.
A confrontation between the wolves and the bear can end terribly for the bear.
The bear is stronger, but the wolves have the benefit of the pack.
This is the alpha female. An alpha animal can be either a male or a female.
The experienced female checks the situation and decides not to attack the bear.
Lowhanging clouds in the ravine.
This is where the Chimshian Indians used to live. The totem pole tells the story of people whose ancestors continued living on as animals. The most dangerous of the animals and the most similar to people is the bear.
This depiction shows that it's the responsibility of the living to protect the bears. In return, the Chimpsian Indians are under the protection of the bears. Should they be in trouble, they will call on the bears for help.
>> The Indian chief, White Eagle, is the best of the bear dancers.
And he tells a legendary story with his dance. It's about the most dangerous of all bears, the grizzly, and also the mysterious ghost bear.
>> The legend tells the Indians that only they have the right to face a ghost bear and also tells a tale of the brutal slaughter of bears by man.
And just as if Manny too had heard our prayers, he sends us a ghost bear. The animal calmly walks out of the underbrush without any fear.
The white bear is being observed. Danger is lurking.
And this one is an exceptionally gifted climber.
The black bear less so. An encounter without consequences.
According to Chimshian mythology, one out of 10 bears was created white so that the people were always reminded of a time where the entire land was covered by glaciers.
Modern science sees this quite differently. Of course, according to science, one of the genes is missing and therefore some of the black bears will have white fur.
The ghost bears are also known as kerode bears, named after the zoologologist Francis Kerode, who began studying these white bears around 1900.
Kerode bears are no different in behavior or lifestyle from black bears.
The Kerode has only one goal to feed on salmon.
The enchanted underwater forest is like a hub with many detours and one-way streets, inflowing creeks and rivers in which the salmon will spawn.
These peaceful travel companions have now turned into bitter enemies. Several salmon males are caughing the same female.
It takes 14 days for the salmon to mate.
The female will lay up to 20,000 eggs in several batches and into several different shallow gravel depressions called reds.
The male rubs against the flanks of the female and fertilizes her eggs.
The males mate with several females to ensure that their genetic code will continue on several times.
Many of the salmon mate with the last of their strength. There's no alternative.
This is their one shot to procreate.
The table is set, but it's not as easy as it seems to clear out the rich buffet.
At the end of a long and strenuous journey, the salmon die of exhaustion.
In their death, they become a feast for others, such as these barbles that eat just about anything.
A macabra picture. A deathridden animal activates its last strength to fight a fain battle.
Dead salmon cadaavvers everywhere. What seems to be an incredible waste at first sight is in fact an important supply of nourishment in a nutrient poor ecosystem.
Near the spawning grounds, the trees grow three times better and more lush than in other areas. The dead salmon act as a fertilizer and the bears also add to that with their excrement.
White bears can also dive.
But what good does it do if you can't catch anything?
A second try.
It seems that the prey is within reach.
Third try and again nothing.
This clever bear again tries to get to the salmon by diving, which is quite difficult in these rapids.
Right underneath the rapids, a competitor is a more successful fisherman. This black bear leaves no doubt who is more experienced, which means retreat.
It doesn't seem too easy to retreat.
Both bears claim the same territory.
Will one have to withdraw?
No chance. The Kerode has again started to hunt for salmon.
He's not quite as inexperienced after all as it first seemed.
The surprise is great.
The white bear has withdrawn into the forest to enjoy the salmon.
Too bad for the black bear.
The black bear is not much larger than the white bear, but much stronger.
Nevertheless, he's not interested in a confrontation.
They check each other out instead and try to gauge the competitor's reactions.
Both bears seem to tolerate each other.
Or maybe the more clever one gives in.
The Kerode bear withdraws in the end.
The black bear also leaves the scene.
This confrontation clearly shows that both bears keep an eye on each other whenever they meet in the same territory. But in the end, they both avoid a fight.
About 500 white bears live in the rainforests of British Columbia. This means that 1 in 10 black bears is white.
A very interesting study by Canadian scientists suggests that the white bears have an advantage over the black bears while fishing for salmon because the fishes don't see the white color of their fur.
Maybe there's something to this study because another study shows that Kerode bears tend to catch more salmon than their black family members.
6 weeks later.
P-sized transparent eggs are visible on the riverbed. The salmon lavi need the oxygenrich gravel bed of the headwaters in order to hatch.
Few of them will survive. Many will drift away with the white water of the river and others will become food for predators underwater and on the surface.
And they have a tendency towards cannibalism. The stronger feeds on the weaker.
The young salmon will stay in their river for 3 years until they start their long journey into the ocean.
It's time for us to leave British Columbia, but we will certainly return to the mysterious ghost bears.
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