Begin walking the Alaskan wilderness to the thunderous footfalls of the North’s iconic megafauna, or sail the North to the calving glaciers and listen to the wild’s unrelenting whispering, feeling the wild pull of the North. Beyond the paths of cruise ship tourists, the well-known performances of the bald eagle and grizzly, and Alaska’s majestic, celebrated regions, lies a deeper, more mysterious story in the landscape of the Brooks Range. It is a tale of the furious accounts of modern science, the frustrated, rigorous, and anecdotal accounts of seasoned hunters, and the indigenous old-world storytelling. It is the dated yet current legend of the Alaskan Seiti, or the far North’s ghost bear —a mythical creature inhabiting the realm of fact and fiction.
Descriptions of the Alaskan Seiti: What Makes the Bear Unique
The Alaskan Seiti is sometimes described as a bear of a different color. However, witnesses report that the large carnivore is consistently different from the common brown bear or polar bear. The most defining trait of the bear is its color. Most Alaskan Seitis are reported to be creamy, off-white, or pale blonde. Meanwhile, other accounts describe the bear as having a striking silvery-blue or ghostly grayish color. This shade of the Alaskan Seiti has led to the bear being termed a “glacier bear.” This is different from the other “glacier bear,” which refers to the black bear, a common bear of Southeast Alaska, that has a rare grayish coat.
It is believed that the settlers, trappers, and explorers researched to determine the meaning of the term “Seiti” in the Iñupiat and Athabascan Indigenous languages and gave it to this region. In the eyes of native people, the light-colored bears are not a “mystery” as they are to the Western scientific community. The native people understand the variations of nature. Differences are sometimes considered more than just part of a system, becoming culturally important or recognized as a spiritual animal. The Western mystery and the native accepted the visible variation to the system is the heart of the Alaskan Seiti.
The Scientific Debate: Color Morph, Hybrid, or Unique Subspecies?
Of course, the Alaskan Seiti bears are the ones that exist and are the origin of these particular bears. The scientific community seems polarized on this subject, and several promising, though unfounded, theories exist to account for the presence of these bears.
1. The Color Morph Theory
This theory is the simplest and most accepted. Brown bears (Ursus arctos horribilis) exhibit a wide range of fur colors, which is influenced by genetics, diet, and environment. People supporting this theory think that the Alaskan Seiti is an extreme case among all the gene values: a recessive one that results in a highly light fur coat. The Brooks Range has isolated, high-elevation populations that can have snow cover and light fur coats, which confer a selective advantage for camouflage. Thus, the light coat gene can increase in frequency and be passed down through the generations. This Alaskan Seiti is not a different species but a standard Alaska brown bear with an extreme case of a distinct phenotype.
2. The Hybridization Theory
The Alaskan Seiti could be evidence of ancient or occasional hybridization with brown (Ursus arctos) and polar bears (Ursus maritimus), and is a more intriguing hypothesis. The rare occurrences of ‘pizzly’ or ‘grolar’ bears (hybrids) in regions of overlap give evidence. The pale color does support a mixed origin. Regarding Alaskan Seiti, described hybrids with and without a mix of elongated necks, slightly humped backs, and partially hollow hair. Descriptions have not claimed sighted specimens of Alaskan Seiti. Preliminary, unreleased results of the claimed genetic analyses also include polar bear DNA that is unaccounted for, and thus, a hypothesis.
3. The Unique Subspecies Theory
The most radical idea is that the Alaskan Seiti is an entirely different subspecies, possibly Ursus arctos seiti. Subspecies form after an area has been cut off from the main population for a long time, and the population develops unique traits. The Brooks Range is the perfect area for a bear population to be cut off from its southern relatives for a very long time. To prove this is the case, scientists must find a significant number of bears and demonstrate sufficient divergence in skull, body size, and genetics to warrant splitting them into a different subspecies. The evidence is sparse and has not come close to this, so this theory is still a possibility.
The Evidence: Sightings, Skins, and Science
The Alaskan Seiti is as real as the evidence for it, which comprises sightings, artifacts, and the Seiti itself.
Anecdotal Sightings form the bedrock of the legend. The most impressive of these stories comes from people who have spent a lot of time in the field: experienced bush pilots, big game guides, and North Slope locals. Their stories are often uniform: a bear that is a grizzly in shape and size, but is covered in a ghostly white or cream color, and is, at the time of the sighting, traversing the tundra or rocky hills at a quick pace. These people did not have brief sightings; instead, they often spent extended time watching the bear through high-powered optics, leaving an impression that did not fade over time and marked their memories.
Physical Specimen adds a mystery. Over the years, a small number of bears with abnormally light pelts have been harvested by hunters. These bears are often used to prove the existence of these unusual white bears. Still, these trophies provide little evidence. Pelts fade and discolor from exposure to light, and there is no way to prove the age of a hide used to make trophies without a guaranteed chain of custody and modern genetic testing. These trophies serve more as conversation starters and are more likely to reflect the existence of the bears than to confirm a biological fact.
Contemporary science brings the best opportunity to solve the problem. These collectors have focused on a non-invasive approach to collecting unnecessary genetic materials from the Brooks Range. These collectors have sought to locate black bears with unusual genetic markers. From the past, the results have been inconclusive. The majority of the samples were identified as arctos bears using standard genetic methods. The challenge remains immense: the region is large, the bear subpopulation is small, and the quest to locate the Alaskan Seiti black bear within the numerous Grizzly bears is truly like the proverbial needle in a haystack.
Symbol and Culture of the Ghost Bear
Seiti bears, from a biological perspective, also have ideological significance and bearing. From an Indigenous perspective, grizzly bears are Spirit Beings and Cosmic Powers. The bears make earthen medicine, and a Grizzly adorned with unique, hand-painted domestic colors, as a Spirit Bear, is a sign of mixed transformation, and within the bear, medicine rests. The absence of a Grizzly Spirit bear is also a sign of no transformation. Traditional Ecological Knowledge, or TEK, is a valuable resource that reminds us that a being, animal or otherwise, is far more than its Linnaean classification.
For many Alaskans and wilderness enthusiasts alike, the legend of the Alaskan Seiti has become a symbol of the state’s spirit and wilderness. Given how much of the Earth has been mapped, the thought of large megafauna still evading scientific scrutiny is romantically inspiring. The Alaskan Seiti stands with the last pieces of the unknown, a reminder that places with true wilderness still exist, their secrets intact. “What if?” keeps the searching spirit in people alive and is the reason every outdoorsperson undauntedly scans the far-off hills with hope.
Conclusion: The Enduring Enigma
The Alaskan Seiti is far more than a legend and a cryptozoological curiosity. It is the meeting point of traditional knowledge and folklore, combined with modern scientific thought. It pushes the boundaries of understanding about what is possible in the natural world, something that remains monumentally unexplored in 2023.
Whether or not the Alaskan Seiti is finally characterized as an unusual color morph, a remnant hybrid population, or a different subspecies is, in many cases, secondary to its greater significance. The mystery of ghost bears guarantees that anyone entering the Brooks Range will do so in anticipation, looking not only for the bears that are already known, but also for the pale apparition of one that isn’t. Alaskan Seiti is one of the North’s greatest enigmas, an actual ghost of the wild and diverse Arctic ecosystem, always wandering the intersection of myth and reality.
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