A polar bear has appeared in the protected south of Kamchatka
Matukha and three cubs, one of which turned out to be unusual, were met by employees of the Service for the protection of protected areas while patrolling the South Kamchatka Federal Reserve, the Kronotsky Reserve told Kamchatka.Today.
State inspectors were taking data from camera traps when they saw this family in the distance. They didn’t come any closer, so as not to disturb him.
Among the three small clubfoots, two were of the usual brown color, and one turned out to be “blond” – with light beige fur.
As explained by Vladimir Gordienko, a researcher at the Kronotsky Nature Reserve, the bear is not an albino. This is just a deviation from the typical color caused by changes in the formation of pigments. The so-called color aberration.
White color is very rare for Kamchatka brown bears. Most likely, the bear cub will darken with age, but it will remain light enough.
Perhaps the outstanding appearance of the young clubfoot is a quirk of genetics. Or he inherited the light coat from his dad.
But you can’t see the “father of the family” nearby – in the bear world, males do not participate in the upbringing of offspring and can even pose a serious danger to offspring.
In 2016, tourists while rafting on the Bystrica River filmed a bear with two cubs, one of which was white. In 2021, a mother with a white offspring settled next to the Malkinsky fish hatchery. Both “boys” were not albinos, this is even visually determined – the cubs had black noses.
No one reported sightings of adult brown bears or polar bears. Probably, predators do darken with age. Or “white crows” do not survive in nature.
Photo: Makar Berdichevsky/Kronotsky Nature Reserve.