Salmon evade large, black models about twice as frequently as they evade large white models, giving white bears an advantage in salmon hunting. During the day, white bears are 35% more successful than black bears in capturing salmon. Kermode bears are omnivorous for most of the year, subsisting mainly on herbage and berries except during autumn salmon migrations, when they become obligate predators. One hypothesis is that this happens because young bears imprint on their mother's fur colour. Additional genetic studies found that white Kermode bears breed more with white Kermode bears, and black Kermode bears breed more with black Kermode bears, in a phenomenon known as positive assortative mating.

Two black bears can mate and produce a white cub if both of these black bears are heterozygous, carrying one copy of the mutant MC1R gene, and both mutant genes are inherited by the cub. This mutant gene is recessive, so Kermode bears with two copies of this mutant, nonfunctional gene appear white, while bears with one copy or no copies appear black. Rather, a single, nonsynonymous nucleotide substitution in the MC1R gene causes melanin to not be produced. White Kermode bears are not albinos, as they still have pigmented skin and eyes. Today, the name Kermode is pronounced as / k ər ˈ m oʊ d i/ kər- MOH-dee differing from the pronunciation of the Kermode surname, which originates on the Isle of Man ( / ˈ k ɜːr m oʊ d/ KUR-mohd).

Museum, who researched the subspecies and was a colleague of William Hornaday, the zoologist who described it. The Kermode bear was named after Frank Kermode, former director of the Royal B.C. Description At the Spirit Bear Lodge, Klemtu, British Columbia They have also been featured in a National Geographic documentary. Spirit bears hold a prominent place in the oral traditions of the indigenous peoples of the area.

The white variant is known as spirit bear, and is most common on three islands in British Columbia ( Gribbell, Princess Royal, and Roderick), where they make up 10–20% of the Kermode population. While most Kermode bears are black, between 100 and 500 fully white individuals exist. It is the official provincial mammal of British Columbia and symbol of Terrace, British Columbia. The Kermode bear, sometimes called the spirit bear ( Ursus americanus kermodei), is a subspecies of the American black bear and lives in the Central and North Coast regions of British Columbia, Canada.

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