- Rare white black bear caught on trail camera.

The bear was observed rummaging through bait that had been laid by a hunter, according to a post shared by a Facebook group for Upper Peninsula trekking guides. Although Department of Natural Resources officials have not independently verified it, they are reasonably confident that the enormous mammal does indeed have white fur based on the photographs that were submitted to them and other local reports.

A large carnivore expert with the DNR, Cody Norton, stated, "I simply thought that was too cool." "Seeing an animal appear in one location rather than another is just exciting. On some of the trail cameras we use for surveys, we've seen some cinnamon color phases as well as blonde and chocolate ones, which is also extremely amazing to see.

But bear populations tend to have more of those. White has a unique style. According to Norton's best estimation, the bear is just approximately two years old.

The western Upper Peninsula, where bears are most prevalent in Michigan, was where it was discovered. It's really the one aspect of the sighting that is universal.

Polar bears or albinos are not black bears with white fur. Instead, according to Norton, they are the outcome of a one-in-a-million chance in which both male and female breeding parents have a recessive gene for white fur.

Black bears with white fur are virtually always born in the wild in western Canada, where they constitute a subspecies of the American black bear. They are known as Kermode bears, and they live on a number of islands in the province. White fur is seen on 10–20% of the population.

According to Norton, it "makes sense they show up more in the population" because the recessive gene is present in the subspecies. But it's considerably more unusual for one to appear in a sizable, socially connected group.

The genetic relationship between the Michigan bear and the Kermode bears in Canada is unclear. DNR officials do look into reports of bear, cougar, and other large animal sightings, but they rarely go looking for a bear to confirm one because of its color.

80 percent of Michigan's 10,050 bears are found in the Upper Peninsula. Since the state cut the bear hunting quota in 2012, the population in both peninsulas has been growing. In the northern lower peninsula, their population has increased by 25% since that time.

According to Norton, there have been more reports of bears in various color phases. In the western UP, blonde and brown tones are more prevalent.

"We would anticipate genetics to be connected to some of those phases. Since white bears rarely appear outside of Canada, it is difficult to determine whether their genetics are related to any other phases in white bears, according to Norton.