Rare white grizzly bear and his two cubs killed in separate car crashes in Canada

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A rare white grizzly bear and its two cubs were killed in two separate incidents on the same highway in Canada after being hit by cars, officials said.

On June 6, Yoho National Park officials received a report that two young animals had been struck and killed early that morning on the Trans-Canada Highway in British Columbia after crossing a section of broken fence.

That same evening, workers were repairing the fence to keep the wildlife away from the road when they saw the mother – marked as GBF 178 and known locally as Nakoda – “startle” at the sound of a train passing by the ditch.

She ran out of the ditch onto the road, “right in front of two vehicles on the highway,” said Saundi Stevens, wildlife management specialist for Parks Canada, during a press conference on Tuesday.

While one of the vehicles was able to “swoop out of the way,” the other was unable to react in time and struck the bear, she said. Nakoda ran back into the woods with “no other visible injuries other than the limp,” which gave officials hope that she had escaped largely unharmed.

But nearly 24 hours after the incident, wildlife experts received a “death signal” from the grizzly bear’s GPS collar, indicating that she had not moved. Her death was confirmed on Saturday.

The white coloration in bears may be due to an unusual recessive gene, said Kris Hundertmark, assistant professor of wildlife ecology at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. The Independent in 2020. In order for the young one to have white fur, both parents would have to have a recessive gene.

The white cub belongs to the grizzly bear subspecies and is different from the Kermode bear or “spirit bear”, which also has white fur due to a rare recessive gene and is a subspecies of the North American black bear.

The team was “devastated” to lose the white grizzly bear and her cubs in such a short time, Ms Stevens said.

“Our wildlife management team at Parks Canada has actually invested a great deal of time – and I mean hundreds and hundreds of hours of work – into caring for Bear 178,” she said.

Addressing rumors circulating on social media that the bear had returned to the highway because she was mourning her cubs, Ms Stevens said Nagoda had “shown no signs of distress,” adding that grizzly bears sometimes eat their dead cubs.

The wildlife team began tracking Nakoda in 2022 after she climbed over the highway fence and has since removed her from the side of the road three times, the ^ “New York Times: The New York Times”.

The national park also introduced a no-stopping zone and reduced the speed limit on a section of the highway to prevent nature lovers from photographing it and other animals that live there.

“We know people come to see wildlife,” she said, “but there are safe ways to observe wildlife and prevent this.”

Her death has caused concern in the wildlife community.

“An emotional response,” said John E Marriott, wildlife photographer and co-founder of the Exposed Wildlife Conservancy. “Photographers, tourists, everyone flocked to see her. I think a lot of people formed a very deep, emotional connection with her. For many, she was the first grizzly bear they had seen,” he was quoted as saying by Canada’s Global News.

“All of this has happened in the last few weeks – first her cubs are hit, then she is hit within 24 hours and then she succumbs to her injuries within another 24 hours – when I heard the news it was devastating.”

According to Nicholas Scapillati, executive director of the Grizzly Bear Foundation, grizzly bear deaths are declining due to the efforts of wildlife conservationists and groups, “but we need to do more for nature.”

“The parks are doing a great job of protecting (the bears), but it’s kind of a stopgap measure. What we really need to look at is how we shape our relationship with nature, with these wilderness areas and these wild animals, and give them the space and opportunity to live the life they need in the wild.

“We need to manage ourselves much better,” Mr Scapillati told the Canadian broadcaster.