Angela Laryea bubbles with excitement when she speaks about an animal she saw in the North Shuswap recently.

She was heading home to Lee Creek from work in Scotch Creek in the early evening of May 20 when she spotted a bear.

An unusual bear.

It was maybe 20 to 30 feet away and it was white, a bit shaggy, with a black head.

香蕉视频直播淲hen I first saw it I thought it was a sheep,香蕉视频直播� she said. When it turned around her first thought was that it was covered in snow, but she quickly realized the impossibility of that notion.

香蕉视频直播淲hen I think about it, he looked dirty, that香蕉视频直播檚 why I thought he was rolling in the snow.香蕉视频直播�

Then she thought, maybe the bear was covered in pollen.

But no, not that either.

She said her car was quite close to the animal before it sauntered off.

It was a white bear with a black head.

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Laryea said she was told it was a Spirit Bear, which she didn香蕉视频直播檛 know existed. She said she香蕉视频直播檚 lived in the area for 30 years and has never seen anything like it.

She香蕉视频直播檚 been telling everyone she knows about the bear and, finally, on June 1, someone else she knows saw it.

香蕉视频直播淢y good friend香蕉视频直播檚 daughter took that (photo) and couldn香蕉视频直播檛 wait to share it with me as I香蕉视频直播檝e been telling the world.香蕉视频直播�

Laryea said the bear in the photo had shed somewhat since she last saw it, but she香蕉视频直播檚 assuming it香蕉视频直播檚 the same bear.

She hopes she香蕉视频直播檒l have the good fortune of seeing it again.

Although initial calls around the area and to the conservation office haven香蕉视频直播檛 yet produced further information on such a bear, the internet香蕉视频直播檚 bear.org uses the name Spirit Bear and Kermode bear interchangeably. Those bears, however, are pictured as all white and it states only about 100 of them remain. Laryea said she香蕉视频直播檚 seen a Kermode bear before and the one she saw looks different.

香蕉视频直播淢ost Spirit Bears live on Princess Royal and Gribbell Islands along the rainforest coast of British Columbia,香蕉视频直播� states the bear.org website. 香蕉视频直播淭hey are considered a subspecies of black bears called Kermode bears (Ursus americanus kermodeii). About 20 percent of the bears on those islands are white; the rest are black. On the mainland, the percentage of white bears drops off drastically with distance from those islands.香蕉视频直播�

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