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Alaskan Panhandle Black Bear

Ursus americanus pugnax

Classification

Family
Ursidae

The glacier bear (Ursus americanus emmonsii), sometimes referred to as the "blue bear", is a subspecies of American black bear with silver-blue or gray hair endemic from Southeast Alaska, to the extreme northwestern tip of British Columbia, and to the extreme southwest of the Yukon. The Tlingit name for the glacier bear is a reference to their size, elusiveness, and ability to visually blend into snowfields: "sik noon", which means "a bear that disappears". Little scientific knowledge exists of their total extent and the cause of their unique coloration.

Distribution

(c) Jay Pruett, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC-BY
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Countries in the Picchu catalog
United States of America · 2