![]() ![]() ![]() But the individuals in her frame were also symbols of hope that life can persist against all odds. For McArthur, it was a powerful moment: two of Australia’s most iconic species-the kangaroo and the eucalyptus tree-standing at a worrisome crossroads in their history. There she encountered this female eastern gray kangaroo, a joey in her pouch, that had somehow survived the cataclysm. In January of last year, shortly after a devastating bushfire near Australia’s southeast coast, photographer Jo-Anne McArthur accompanied a team from an organization called Vets for Compassion as they searched a eucalyptus plantation for injured and starving koalas. Driven by record-setting droughts and temperatures, wildfires have devastated habitats and wildlife populations alike, and scientists are worried that these events will only grow more common with climate change. Bushfires have ravaged the Australian landscape in recent years, burning some 42 million acres in 20 alone. Against a bright sky, a white predator is actually less conspicuous than a dark one. Spirit bears, like the one Valberg photographed, are highly conspicuous from a human standpoint, but this is not the case for a salmon looking up through the water. In 2009, a team of researchers from the University of Victoria monitored salmon-fishing proficiency among both black and white Kermode bears and found that while black bears were slightly more successful when fishing at night, white bears were significantly more successful during the day. It is, however, an inherited trait that is fully recessive, and scientists had long wondered why white-morph bears-often called spirit bears or ghost bears-were so common on the islands. This distinctive coloring is not an albino condition, since the bears have pigmented skin and eyes. While most of the Kermode bears that roam the region’s coastal islands are black, about 10 to 25 percent are white. When the large bear needed a breath, he pulled his head out of the water and shook, sending sparkling droplets of water spiraling around his head. Several meters in front of her, a Kermode bear-a subspecies of the American black bear-had plunged its head into a river in search of salmon roe, and she knew what would likely happen next. On a remote island in northern British Columbia, photographer Michelle Valberg crouched low to the ground, trying to remember to breathe. ![]()
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