High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! The Kermode Bear (Ursus americanus kermodei), also known as the "spirit bear", is a subspecies of the American Black Bear living in the central and north coast of British Columbia, and noted for about 1/10 of their population having white or cream-coloured coats. This colour variant is due to a unique recessive trait in their gene pool they are neither albino nor related to polar bears or the "blond" brown bears of Alaska's "ABC Islands". Because of their ghost-like appearance, "spirit bears" hold a prominent place in the mythology of the Canadian First Nations and American Indians of the area.