Earlier this week, a TikTok user posted up-close video footage of a rare all-white grizzly bear feeding on grass just inches from a highway guard rail. The unusual bear is well known to residents of nearby Banff, Canada. And wildlife officials have taken special precautions to remove it from the area, due to its propensity to frequent the shoulder of the busy Trans-Canada Highway. The viral TikTok video of the wild bear—which locals have dubbed Nakoda—has now amassed more than 8 million views. See it for yourself below.
@kitazakibanff #🤯#encounter #whitegrizzly #grizzly #grizzlybear #canadianrockies #canada ♬ original sound – Yuko
Last June, wildlife technicians working for Parks Canada trapped the 6-year-old sow grizzly. They outfitted it with a GPS-tracking collar and released it into a more remote location—away from the busy highway that winds between Banff and Yoho National Parks and the Canada Pacific Railway. But the bear quickly returned after the 2022 trapping, and it appears to be back in the highway corridor hanging out by the road again this summer.
The Canadian grizzly is no stranger to headlines and social media fame. Back in April 2020, it was spotted by a family as they drove down a remote stretch of the highway. Their footage quickly went viral and was featured in such outlets as The Guardian and the Toronto Star.
After outfitting it with a radio telemetry collar last summer, Parks Canada has kept close tabs on the animal’s whereabouts. According to Rocky Mountain Outlook, agents have tried to prevent the rare bear from climbing a wildlife exclusion fence and entering the highway corridor whenever possible. They use vehicle lights and loud hazing sounds in hopes of keeping it on the safer side of the fence, opposite the highway. But the animal is an adept climber, and it frequently returns to the roadside.
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Parks Canada said the sow grizz that’s causing such a stir in the Banff area is not an albino bear. “This color phase variation is unusual for grizzly bears but has been seen before,” the agency said in a statement provided the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation last June. “Grizzly bears are typically brown, black or blonde; however there have been records of grizzly bears with a white colour phase variation.”
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