In search of British Columbia’s spirit bears

Sprawling along Canada’s Pacific coast, from the northern tip of Vancouver Island to the Alaskan border, the Great Bear Rainforest is a protected wilderness area roughly twice the size of Belgium. It harbours all kinds of wondrous creatures, of which the most striking is surely the spirit bear, says Oliver Berry in the Financial Times.

Long thought to be cousins of the polar bear, these creamy-white animals are, in fact, Kermode bears (a subspecies of the black bear) that have pale coats owing to a genetic variant. They are found only in British Columbia, where estimates of their numbers vary between 100 and 500. Sightings are very rare, therefore – but I have long “dreamt” of seeing one, and last year I decided to try my luck.