White Outfishes Black Among BC Bears

BC’s famous white “spirit bears” are better fishers than their black brethren, says a new study by two University of Victoria researchers. UVic graduate student Dan Klinka (who has since graduated) and his supervisor, biologist Dr. Tom Reimchen, spent almost 700 hours watching bears forage for salmon on BC’s central coast. They discovered that white bears are about 30 per cent more efficient at catching fish in rivers than black bears—but only during daylight hours. At night, black bears have a slight advantage.
        The “spirit” or “Kermode” bear is a white colour phase of the black bear and is found only on several small islands on BC’s central coast. Up to 25 per cent of the bears in the region are white.
        In the study, published this month in the Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, Klinka and Reimchen also draped themselves in white and black costumes to confirm their theory that, in daylight, salmon are less evasive to white objects. “During the day, dark-coloured bears are more easily spotted against the bright surface of the water,” says Reimchen.
        This advantage strengthens the argument that the persistence of the white colour phase is linked to salmon availability, says Reimchen. This has important conservation implications. “Widespread declines in salmon numbers—from high commercial fishing quotas in the region—and ongoing industrial deforestation continue to compromise the future of this striking bear,” he says.
 

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