Princess Royal Island is the fourth largest island in British Columbia. It is located along BC’s coast, approximately halfway between Port Hardy and Prince Rupert.

The island is largely wild; however, the area is rich in the First Nations culture and history, including abandoned settlements and active communities Klemtu on Swindle Island and Hartley Bay on BC's coast. A ghost town of Butedale, formerly a home to a fish canning factory, reminds about the island’s industrial past. Princess Royal Island is separated from the mainland by several channels forming part of the Inside Passage. The island and surrounding areas are frequently explored by organized wildlife and eco tours, and individual boaters and kayakers.

The climate is relatively mild and very wet, with average annual precipitation around 5,000 mm (for comparison, Amazon basin: 2,000 mm, Victoria BC: 600 mm). The island receives about as much precipitation over the driest months (June-August) as Victoria over a year.

Most of the island is covered with the temperate rainforest and is full of wildlife, including bears, deer, wolves, foxes, eagles and marbled murrelets. Salmon, sea lions, seals, orcas, porpoises and many other marine species inhabit or frequently visit island’s waters.

The most famous inhabitants of Princess Royal Island are spirit bears, known scientifically as Kermode bears, an extremely rare subspecies of American black bear, only known to exist in British Columbia’s temperate rainforest. These are black bears with a recessive gene that becomes active in some individuals producing a creamy-white coat.

National Geographic estimates their total wild population at 400-1,000 (for comparison, Giant Pandas: 1,600-3,000; Mountain Gorillas: 800). About 10% of bears on the island are spirit bears.

The spirit bear that you will see on one of the photographs is known locally as the National Geographic Bear, after it was featured in the August 2011 issue of the National Geographic.


Sources: Wikipedia, Smithsonian, National Geographic, Environment Canada, The Weather Network