‘You want to cry’: Photographer’s rare access to Canada’s mysterious spirit bears | CNN

EDITOR’S NOTE: Call to Earth is a CNN editorial series committed to reporting on the environmental challenges facing our planet, together with the solutions. Rolex’s Perpetual Planet Initiative has partnered with CNN to drive awareness and education around key sustainability issues and to inspire positive action. Along the rain-battered coast of British Columbia, spirit bears roam. There are thought to be no more than 100 of these majestic creatures, also called the Kermode bear, a subspecies of black bears with ghostly white coats. They wander the Great Bear Rainforest, a 250-mile tract of western Canada larger than Sri Lanka, feasting on salmon from the chilly North Pacific and living out of the public eye. The spirit bear and its neighbors, a collection of First Nations communities including the Kitasoo Xai’xais, Gitga’at, Heiltsuk, Metlakatla, Nuxalk and Wuikinuxv, are culturally and practically entwined. There’s evidence of human habitation of the Great Bear Rainforest stretching back 11,000 years. The white bear features in First Nations’ totem poles, oral tales and dances. They rely on the same land and food sources for survival. “It’s this mysterious being t