A ‘ghost bear’ mother teaches her cubs to fish

A ‘ghost bear’ mother and her two cubs venture into a river in western Canada to eat. Her cubs need to learn how to fish, and the mother is looking specifically for female salmon carrying the nutrient-rich eggs that will help the bears put on weight for winter.

This BBC Earth clip from Natural World: Ghost Bear captures their feast, and shows what happens when a second, larger ghost bear wanders into the scene.

Ghost or spirit bears are nicknames for kermode bears that are white instead of black. “The white variant is most common on three islands in British Columbia (Gribbell, Princess Royal, and Roderick), where 10–20% of bears are white.” This particular bear and her cubs were filmed for a year by Canadian filmmaker Jeff Turner and his family.

Watch these bear videos next: Black bear cubs learn to scamper up trees (sort of), the ‘Bear Bathtub’ in Yellowstone National Park, Un albero un anno (One tree one year), and bears in the forest: What goes on when you are not there…

Plus: More fishing videos on this site.