A "one-in-a-million" white-coloured bear was spotted in the United States earlier this month, but it was unfortunately killed by wolves days later.
The bear was spotted on a trail camera in Michigan. A series of images shared by an Upper Peninsula trekking guide Facebook group showed the bear rummaging through bait that had been placed by a hunter. The bear was almost completely white, with slightly brown fur around its head and neck.
Take a look below:
The rare animal was, however, killed by wolves shortly after snaps of the bear were posted by Facebook group Yooper Outdoors #906 on 6 September. Speaking to Fox News, the group, a Michigan-based guide service, stated that the white-coloured black bear was found dead following the early-September sighting of the animal.
"Our wolf population has devastated our big game populations in the U.P.," the group said.
According to Newsweek, the white-coloured bear, also known as the spirit bear, is considered a symbol of change for indigenous peoples. They are a type of black bear, but instead of dark brown fur, they have white or cream-coloured fur and nearly white claws.
As per North American Bear Center, there are only about 100 spirit bears in the world. "Outside British Columbia only about one in a million black bears is white," the institution said. It also explained that this is because spirit bears' colouration is due to a double recessive gene that only results in white fur if both parents contribute it to their offspring.
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Separately, speaking about the images of the white-coloured bear, Cody Norton, who is a wildlife biologist at the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, said, "I thought it was just too cool." "It's just exciting seeing an animal pop up like this here instead of somewhere else. We've had some cinnamon colour phases show up, some blonde and chocolate on some trail cameras we use for surveys which is also really cool to see," Mr Norton added, as per New York Post.
Notably, the spirit bear in Michigan is the first to be seen outside of British Columbia since 2004.
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