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A spirit bear roams along a rain-swept coastline in British Columbia.
There are thought to be fewer than 100 of these majestic creatures, also known as Kermode bears, a subspecies of black bear with ghostly white fur. They wander the Great Bear Rainforest, a 450-mile region in western Canada larger than Sri Lanka, where they feed on salmon caught in the cold North Pacific Ocean and live in seclusion.
Spirit Bear and its neighbors, a collection of indigenous communities including the Kitasu-Zaishai, Gitgaat, Heiltsuk, Metlakatla, Nuxalk, and Wikinuk, are culturally and practically connected. There is evidence of human habitation in the Great Bear Rainforest dating back 11,000 years. Polar bears appear on Native American totem poles, oral stories, and dances. They rely on the same land and food sources to survive.
“There’s this mysterious presence that lives among them,” says photographer Jacques Plante, but “the vast majority[of the Kitasu-Xai-Xai]have never seen it.”
Plant has spent the past 10 years from spring to fall with the Kitasaw Zayzai people of Klemtu, a small community on Swindle Island, one of dozens along the coastal fjord. Unlike many Kitasu Zaishas, this Brit has ventured deep into the temperate rainforest as a guide and photographer, and has seen more spirit bears than ever before. Images from his adventures have been compiled into a new book, Spirit of the Great Bear, which includes 90 photos from the forest.
The portfolio depicts a Spirit Bear emerging from a lush forest, soaking wet in a river and eating salmon, its mouth red with blood. They look solitary, imposing, and conspicuous, yet still have a homey feel to them. There are grizzly bears and wolves in the forest, and killer whales and humpback whales in the ocean. A book was “never a goal,” Plant admitted, adding that he selected five to 10 photos from each year he spent in the forest. “Many photographers experience once-in-a-lifetime trips. I had the luxury of experimenting,” he said. “So there was no pressure from anyone but me.”
Plant first visited the Great Bear Rainforest in 2014 when he was in his early 20s, inspired by a National Geographic cover featuring a spirit bear. “I got hooked. All I could do was talk about it for years,” he said. This 2010 photo was taken by Paul Nicklen, the legendary Canadian photographer who later became Plant’s mentor, and serves as the preface to his book in a full-circle moment.
On that first trip, Plant saw a spirit bear for the first time on her birthday, which was “an insane moment,” but the rewards didn’t end there. “I never expected to connect with the people there so much. Everything fell into place. I was like, ‘I have to find a way to be here a lot.'”
He transitioned into leadership and was placed under the tutelage of Douglas Niesroth, the current director of the Kitasoo-Xai-Xai Nation, and the late Hereditary Chief Heimers Ernest V (Charlie) Mason. Plant said Mason “had to wear inch-thick glasses, but he found the spirit bear before anyone else.”
“These people are different. Their knowledge is not backed by science or research, but by knowledge and wisdom passed down through generations. I don’t think you can beat that,” he added.
Protect the Spirit Bear’s land
During his stay, Plant witnessed a series of remarkable conservation victories promoted by the Kitasu-Xai’xai people. “For such a small community, they have a lot of power,” he said.
In 2000, the Kitasu-Xai’xai Nation outlined a management plan to protect their natural resources, and in 2012 they were among the first indigenous groups to implement a ban on bear trophy hunting in the rainforest. The plan was so successful that it persuaded the British Columbia government to introduce a province-wide ban on grizzly bear hunting in 2017, which the government supported by banning black bear hunting in the province in 2022. In the same year, the Kitasu-Xaishai tribe also introduced a marine reserve in North Sioux Bay to protect herring stocks.
Plant explained the hunting ban as a victory for those who argued that bears are worth more living than dead animals.Tourism is a bigger industry than hunting, so let’s keep the bears alive.
Spirit bears are the product of a recessive gene from their black bear parents and, despite common misconceptions, are not albino.
“It’s a very difficult animal to study,” Plant said, because of its rarity and the large area it occupies. There is a lack of adequate data to confirm how many spirit bears exist, with estimates ranging from 100 to 500. The Spirit Bear Research Foundation estimates there are fewer than 100 individuals living in the Great Bear Rainforest, but Plant believes the number is “much lower,” perhaps 50 at most.
Spirit bears are becoming increasingly difficult to spot, the photographer said, despite improved conservation measures. “It’s very difficult to determine whether they are moving into areas that are difficult for us to access or whether their population is decreasing,” he added.
One possibility, the photographer said, is that when grizzly bears move into one area, black bears typically move elsewhere. But if the spirit bear population is in decline, as Plant feels it is, there could be multiple reasons.
One of the biggest challenges Spirit Bears face is food. “There are a lot of salmon in the rivers I’ve seen, but there are very few today,” he says.
One of the most striking images in his book is of a spirit bear and an Asiatic black bear fighting over dead salmon after the 2018 drought disrupted fish migration, a rare occurrence in rain-soaked parts of the world.
The biome is at risk due to climate change and overfishing. Even though rainforest indigenous peoples have won every battle, “we still continue to lose the conservation war,” Plant said.
In August, Douglas Niesroth will be named a hereditary chief at a potlatch honoring Mason, hereditary chief of the Kitasu-Xai’zai Nation, who passed away last year.
Former national leader Niesroth disagreed with the perception that bear numbers were in decline, saying: “The numbers have always been quite small.”
He is also part of the Coastal Guardian Watchmen, made up of members of seven First Nations who patrol the coastal waters around the fjords. They not only deter illegal fishing and poaching, but also provide wildlife research, fisheries monitoring, scientific research support, and act as an environmental emergency response. The group was founded in 2005 and currently rangers have authority over British Columbia Provincial Parks, although they are not employees of the park.
“There was a lot of illegal activity in the ’90s before Watchman came out, but there’s nothing now,” Niesroth said.
Protecting the coast, the forest, and its spirit bear also means protecting the future of Kitasu Zaizai. The nation has invested heavily in ecotourism infrastructure, including guide training and the Spirit Bear Lodge where visitors stay.
Plant doesn’t see this book as closing a chapter in his life. He plans to return to Klemtu this summer for Mason’s potlatch, and although he doesn’t guide much anymore, he plans to go back into the wild in search of spirit bears and, hopefully, some familiar faces.
“There is a special spirit bear that I have watched grow from an 8-month-old cub to an 8-year-old dominant male,” he said.
“You go back to the forest and wait for the bear to show up. He sticks his finger in his mouth, saying he’s safe and made it through the winter. And then he shows up and you almost want to cry… He’s a little bigger, he looks healthy, and he looks into your eyes… It’s hard not to believe there’s some kind of connection to you.”
