ALTHOUGH APOLLO, the Kermode bear who took up residence in a den on Stephanie Waymen’s Rosswood property two winters ago, didn’t return this past winter to the same den, he has been seen this summer.
Someone reported seeing Apollo in the company of a female black bear, leading to speculation that he could be a father soon.
And the odds of another Kermode being born is pretty good.
Large carnivore specialist with the Ministry of the Environment, Tony Hamilton, says there could be a chance of another Kermode being born in that set of cubs depending on what kind of genes the sow is carrying.
Black bears carry two genes for colour: white white, white black or black black, he says.
One from each parent is passed onto the cubs. Apollo would be white white.
If the sow is black black then there’s no chance of the cubs being Kermode white but if she’s white black, there is a chance for a white cub.
As for when the bear cubs are born, it depends on how healthy the female is as she doesn’t actually get pregnant for a few months, he explains.
“She’s not really pregnant in the way we would think of it in human terms until the fall,” he says, adding that the growth of any baby bears stops until then.
So if, and only if, the sow meets her minimum nutrition requirements will she get pregnant in November and up here she’d give birth in about February or maybe earlier in January, he explains.
“...and if she doesn’t meet that nutritive threshold requirement then she doesn’t [become pregnant] and no harm done,” he says.
Mostly what the female would be doing is trying to eat enough to stay alive all winter long, he says.
“...so hopefully she’ll get enough [food] resources and implants (gets pregnant) and come next spring, maybe there will be a white cub to go with it,” says Hamilton.
Apollo first became known when Waymen started a Kermode spirit bear website and put a camera outside the den where Apollo was hibernating for the winter of 2009/2010. She also named him.
Many people, including an elementary school class in the U.S. and a lady in Germany, were soon watching him online.