The spirit bear video is difficult to analyze. I feel like there is more there than I am catching in the 2:xx clip.
As a species, the viability of an animal created solely through the chance meeting of two bears with a recessive gene is low. It isn’t stated in the video, but I wonder if the spirit bear can mate and form other spirit bears, or if they can only be produced through luck – first through two black bears with an inner white bear, and second by falling into the 25% chance that these recessive alleles will combine. It just seems highly unlikely, hence why there are only 400 bears left. Also, with only phenotypic differences, are they really a new species, or are they just a variation, like an albino? From the video, it seems like they really are just white black bears.
While a white black bear is very cool, I don’t see why they are absolutely necessary. Species go extinct all the time, due to habitat erosion, lack of food, disease, hunting. The phenomena of extinction has been going on for hundreds of thousands of years, and it will continue, no matter how we try to stop it (for the most part, we help, it seems). One day, we will go extinct, regardless of how we fight it. Natural cycles stand still for no man, no beast, no plant. This isn’t even a genetically unique type of bear – it’s an anomaly. Not to be coarse, but there are larger wildlife related problems out there. Why are we trying to solve this one?
Image from: http://www.spiritbear.com/
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