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Black Bears on the Pacific Coast are generally
a lustrous black. Other colours occur although they are
restricted to a few small areas. For example, a white form
known as the ‘Kermode bear’ resides on Princess Royal and
Gribbell islands in British Columbia, and a bluish gray form
referred to as the ‘Glacier bear’ resides in southeast Alaska.
The taxonomy of the black bear is open to conjecture but the
current thinking is that there are 18 subspecies of which 8
are found on the Pacific Coast. An especially large subspecies
of Black Bear (Ursus americanus carlottae) resides on
the Queen Charlotte Islands. Other Pacific coast subspecies
are U. a. altifrontalis from coastal California to
Burke Channel in British Columbia; U. a. americanus on
the coast of southwestern Alaska across Canada and USA; U.
a. emmonsii (glacier bear) coastal Alaska from Glacier Bay
to Prince William Sound, U. a. kermodei (Kermode bear)
Princess Royal, Gribbell and probably other nearby islands in
British Columbia, U. a. perniger Kenai Peninsula U.
a. pugnax southeast Alaska north to Chicagof island, U.
a. vancouveri on Vancouver Island, British Columbia.
References
Bauer, E. and P. Bauer. 1996. Bear: behaviour,
ecology, and conservation. Voyageur press, Stillwater MN.
Cowan, I. McTaggart and C. J. Guiguet. 1965.
The mammals of British Columbia. BC. Provincial Museum
Handbook No. 11, Victoria, BC.
Wilson, D. E. and S. Ruff. 1999. The
Smithsonian book of North American mammals. Smithsonian
Institution, Washington, D.C.
(written October 2005)
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