As I trekked around the maintenance yard area at Beacon Hill Park, I was hoping to find a reminder of some kind: a plaque or sign. It would never have occurred to me that the Park’s most celebrated resident would not have been remembered in some way after surviving 24 years in captivity. Conspicuous by its absence, there is no evidence whatsoever that Ursus, the only Kermode bear in captivity at that time, ever existed; she who entertained, educated, and captivated; she who lifted people’s spirits between 1924–1948: during the Courtenay earthquake, the Great Depression and WWII. This is indeed a shame.

Image C-09769 courtesy of Royal BC Museum, BC
Archives

The six-month-old female cub with the white fur was captured on Princess Royal Island in 1924, and subsequently confiscated at the U.S. border. Shortly thereafter it was placed in the custody of Francis Kermode, Curator of the Provincial Museum in Victoria. According to Janis Ringuette, author of Beacon Hill Park’s Famous White Bear, Dr. William Hornaday of the New York Zoological Society declared the bear a new species, naming it Ursus Kermodei, in hopes that Francis Kermode would feel obligated to send Ursus to the zoo in New York. Much to his credit, he did not.

Image A-02257
courtesy of Royal BC
Museum, BC Archives

Experts have since concluded that the Kermode bear was simply a white colour phase of the common black bear, Ursus americanus. For at least 500,000 years, black bears have roamed this continent, and the black bears of Vancouver Island and Queen Charlotte Islands shared the same common ancestor 10,000 years ago. University of Victoria evolutionary biologist Dr. Tom Reimchen says: “That the white phase has persisted for 10,000 years suggests an ecological advantage."

The Tsimpshian People refer to the Kermode as 'Moskgm'ol' — white bear, and according to legend, when Raven made everything green after the ice receded, 1 in 10 black bears were left white to remind him of a time when the world was white with ice and snow. It is also believed that Princess Royal Island was the paradise set aside for the bears to live in peace forever.

Image courtesy of Janis
Ringuette

Often the centre of heated debates as to whether it would be more humane to return her to the wild, Ursus was the subject of many letters to the Daily Colonist. One letter written in 1944 described her as “pacing her concrete floor until exhausted,” and another wrote that it was “incomprehensible that people can get any pleasure from the sight of animals shut up in cages.”

Four years later she was gone: found dead in her cage by caretaker George Redknap. The next day she was trucked away to the lab at the Legislative Buildings. At that time, Dr. Clifford Carl, Director of the Provincial Museum said, “the skin, skull and a few other accessories would be saved, but that the bear would not be stuffed.” And in 2003, in order to dispel rumours that Ursus had been stuffed, James A. Cosgrove, Manager, Natural History Section, Royal British Columbia Museum confirmed that, “The Kermode bear from Beacon Hill Park is in our research collection as a skull and a tanned hide.”

In the late 1990s, Simon Jackson founded the Spirit Bear Youth Coalition to protect their habitat from logging, and for the past 13 years, biologist Mr. McCory of the Valhalla Wilderness Society has been working on a plan to create a sanctuary of 250,000 hectares, which will encompass Princess Royal's large unlogged portion and a section of adjacent mainland.

One can only speculate as to whether Ursus' captivity helped influence some to pursue careers as zoologists, animal physiologists or ecologists. Perhaps others, or their children, imagined the mysterious and distant place she came from, and considered ways that it could be protected. In any event, Ursus' 24 years at Beacon Hill Park brought many of our parents and grandparents joy, and represents a unique period in the Park's history that should be recognized — not expunged.

References
Isabella, Jude. The Kermode Bear. http://genetics.forestry.ubc.ca/ritland/kermode/isabella.doc [18 July 2008].
Ringuette, Janis. Beacon Hill Park’s Famous White Bear. http://www.islandnet.com/beaconhillpark/articles/118_kermode.htm [19 July 2008].

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