Rare Kermode bear OK after being struck on highway

SMITHERS, B.C. -- The white Kermode bear is usually a rare sight in British Columbia, but a motorist on Highway 37 in the province's northwest couldn't avoid hitting the animal.

A caller to the B.C. Conservation Officer Service hotline reported that a vehicle struck a Kermode near Smithers and that it wasn't possible to determine the bear's condition.

The conservation service sent an officer to the area, and a mother bear was spotted meandering along the highway with her two black cubs.

A video of all three bears has been posted on the service's Facebook site, and it shows them moving about, eating, and apparently without any injuries.

The Kermode is a rare subspecies of the black bear and a recessive gene gives some of the animals a white coat though they are not albino or related to the polar bear.

The Kermode or so-called spirit bear is B.C.'s provincial mammal and is found on the central and north coast.

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  A Kermode bear, better know as the Spirit Bear is seen fishing in the Riordan River on Gribbell Island in the Great Bear Rainforest, B.C. on Sept, 18, 2013. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jonathan Hayward

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  The white Kermode bear is usually a rare sight in British Columbia, but a motorist on Highway 37 in the province's northwest couldn't avoid hitting the animal.