Sighting of cream-coloured bear would be a local first
Sandra McCulloch, Canwest News Service
Published: Saturday, May 24, 2008
A Saskatchewan couple on holiday came face to face with what they say was a white "spirit bear" in East Sooke Park last week.
"I was mesmerized by its beauty," said Barb Farthing Friday in a telephone interview from her home in Saskatoon.
She and her husband Fred are absolutely certain what they saw was a bear. If so, this would be the first local sighting of a black bear with the genetic mutation that makes its coat white, similar to those found on Princess Royal Island on the central coast. They're known as kermode, or spirit bears.
The kermode bear, also known as the spirit bear, has a genetic mutation that turns its coat white.
The couple were on a holiday to celebrate their 25th wedding anniversary and attend a nephew's wedding when, on May 13, they decided to hike the coast trail in East Sooke Park.
"We went down to Beechey Head and the petroglyphs and we were actually on our way back," said Farthing.
It was between 5 and 5:30 p.m. when they saw a flash of white ahead of them on the trail.
"I thought it was people coming along," Farthing said. "Then my husband said, 'Holy cow! It's a bear!'
"Sure enough, I saw this big, cream-colored bear. It turned around to look at us and started to come toward us. We were something like 50 feet away."
The sight of a white bear, with dark eyes and nose, had the couple momentarily frozen in their tracks, said Farthing.
"We were just mesmerized because it was so beautiful. I never knew that, besides polar bears, there was such a thing as a white bear."
They scrambled down the cliff to the beach and walked along the rocky shore for half an hour, then climbed back up to the trail farther on. They got back to their car at 6:30 p.m., unsure they should tell anyone about the bear or who they would tell.
The next day, Fred was in a car with another man when they spotted a black bear at the roadside, and he is convinced the white bear he and Barb had seen was much bigger.
The couple flew home a few days later.
"My husband had told a couple of colleagues at work and one of them was a hunter, and he said 'Wow, I think that's really rare. I think you should let somebody know you saw it,' Farthing said.
So the couple sent an e-mail this week to the Sooke tourist centre, which is part of the Sooke Region Museum.
"I know all about doubting and it's a first reaction that this is a mistake," said Elida Peers, the museum's executive director and a life-long resident.
"I'm inclined to go with this," Peers said. "It doesn't sound like it's a mistake. How do we know that other people haven't seen it and just haven't said anything?"
The Farthings are excited with the discovery of the white bear but Barb said they have one deep regret: "Darn it, we didn't take a picture!"
Jeff Ward of Capital Regional Parks said he has not had any other sightings reported to his office of a white bear in the park.
"I'm sure that would have been hot news here," he said yesterday.
http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/westcoastnews/story.html?id=20a385ca-498f-415b-93dd-c2f240e19ffa
