The Ghost Bear

Psalm 92:5 -- "How great are your works, O Lord."

photo: "Halo" by Bill Lea 

1997 was a very good year. In my own life I was gifted with marriage to an amazing man, love of my life, and my truest, deepest, best friend. And in a place called Orr, Minnesota - a very rare and precious bear was sighted in the Vince Shute Wildlife Sanctuary.

Minding their own business so to speak, a group of park keepers and volunteers spotted a white bear foraging for food in a clump of trees. Stunned, the group stood in silence and watched the timid young male step out of the tree line and into clear view. With the sun shining in behind the bear, his white fur lit up and gave him a halo of shining morning light. He was from that point forward, dubbed "Halo".

Halo is not an albino bear. His nose is black and his eyes are dark brown. It was at first believed that Halo was somehow a long way from home - Princess Royal Island off of British Columbia - where there is the only known group of Kermode Bears [ a white sub-species of black bear] in existence. It was learned later that Halo was a bear all his own, and a rare bear amongst rare bears. His DNA didn't match that of the bears on Princess Royal Island.

Kermode bears are a truly amazing combination of double recessive genes. Both parents of these unique animals have to have a gene that causes a single nucleotide to produce adenine rather than guanine. That's it, ONE nucleotide decides to act out and viola! A non-albino black bear grows white fur. There are only about 100 of these special bears known to mankind. And all of those bears live in British Columbia.

photo: North American Bear Center

So you can imagine the shock and surprise - and let's face it, sheer delight - when Halo was discovered. Not only did he prove to be unrelated to the Kermode bears of Princess Royal Island, but he managed to have the very special double recessive gene trait.

In the year 2000 a black bear mother was spotted near Beausjour, Manitoba - her two cubs were white. And then in the year 2004 a black bear mother with one white cub was seen in Cedar Lake, Manitoba. Add it all up - and there are only four non Polar, non Kermode white bears known to exist on our entire planet. Just four! ... in the entire world!

In our blazing age of internet, satellite television, and cellular phones where everybody can pretty much get their hands on any information they could dream up - only four white bears exist - and these priceless bears are a new discovery. How cool is that? How amazing!

O Lord, how truly amazing, awe inspiring, special, beautiful, and GREAT are your works!