Ghost Bear
Moksgm'ol,
meaning white bear of the Rainforest, is the Tsimshian word for the
Kermode black bear (Ursus Americanus Kermodei). A Kermode bear [named
after Frank Kermode, past director of the Royal British Columbia Museum
who conducted the first studies into the origins of the white bear one
hundred years ago] is a typical American black bear, except it has a
white coat. This is not a population of white bears, but a population
of black bears in which one out of every ten has white fur, the result
of recessive genes. The pure white bears are not albinos. [National
Geographic, January 1992]
The myth, according to the Tsimshian people who lived in the area long ago, is as follows: Long ago, the world was covered in ice and snow. One day, the raven, the creator of the world, came down from heaven and turned the world green, as it is today. But as a reminder of the time when all was white, the raven went among the bears and turned every tenth one the color of snow. The raven decreed that the bear would live forever in peace. But now that the loggers have started clearing tracts of the 10,000-year-old-rainforest, the home of this elusive "ghost bear", one wonders how much longer before this deep forest and the bear disappear. [www.pbs.org]
(picture source: http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/ghostbear/html/body_intro.html)