Original Article: https://blog.theanimalrescuesite.greatergood.com/white-black-bear-michigan/

A one-in-a-million black bear was captured on camera in Michigan and people can’t get enough of it.

A Michigan trail camera managed to photograph a white-colored black bear in the western Upper Peninsula of Michigan.

Photos of the bear were shared in a Facebook post by an Upper Peninsula trekking guide Facebook page, Yooper Outdoors #906.

They captioned the post:

“Happy Bear Eve!! There’s been a white black bear on camera in the Yoop! Extremely rare, but ya never know what May coming walking into your bait!”

Officials with the Department of Natural Resources haven’t independently confirmed that the large mammal actually has white fur, but based on the images that were sent to them and other area reports, they are fairly certain.

According to Fox Weather, Cody Norton with DNR 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 color phases show up, some blonde and chocolate on some trail cameras we use for surveys which is also really cool to see. But those are more common in bear populations. White is its own thing.”

He added that he believes the bear is on the younger side, estimating it to be around 2 years old.

The North American Bear Center reports that black bears with white fur are not polar bears or albinos. Instead, they’re known as spirit bears and it’s estimated there are only 100 or so in existence.

The largest population of spirit bears live on Princess Royal and Gribbell Islands, but outside of British Colombia, the chance of a black bear being white is around one in a million.

Source: The Animal Rescue Site Blog