Download Spirit Bear Vocabulary

Spirit Bear Vocabulary
Chapter 1-6
Probation officer (a person who monitors convicted criminals who are out of prison)
Detainee (prisoner, captive)
Cowering (shy away, shrink)
Prosecutor ( the government representative, who persues the charges against the
accused
Defendant (the layer who tries to prove the accused innocent)
Sentencing (the hearing to determine the consequence for the crime)
Chafed ( rubbed, scraped)
Plead ( beg, implore)
Juvenile delinquent ( a young person in trouble with the law)
Stifling ( roasting, hot)
Conscious of (aware of)
Defiantly (bodily resistant or challenging
Omen (a warning of good or evil events to happen in the future)
Grudgingly (unwilling, or reluctant)
Billow (fluttering, catching in the wind)
Shrouded ( masked, covered)
Flinch (cringe, balk)
Mosey (saunter, stroll, amble)
Depositions/affidavit ( testimony taken down in writing)
Brandish (show off, flaunt)
Chapter 7-13
Gluttonous (greedy, excessive)
Haphazard (random, chaotic, disorganized)
Delirious (disturbances of consciousness, hallucinations)
Charred (overcooked, burnt)
Torrent (flowing water, river)
Solitary (alone, without companions )
Roil (mixed, stirred up)
Flitting (fly, flutter, dart)
Stupor (daze, dream, state of unconsciousness)
Rivulet (stream of liquid)
Parched (to make dry, hot or thirsty)
Surged (a strong forward movement)
Vengeance (violent revenge)
Chapter 14-24
Reluctantly ( unwillingly, struggling in opposition)
Diminish ( to make or cause to seem smaller, less important)
Relinquish (give up, surrender, renounce, turn down)
Redeem (make amends for, make up for)
Composed (cool, calm, collected)
Ingenuity (cleverness, skill)
Reverent (worshipful, deeply respectful)
Grimace (frown, scowl)
Gorge (over eat, stuff yourself)
Sullen (morose, grim, gloomy)
Awning (canopy, sun shade, a roof like structure)
Irked (annoyed, bothered)
Gingerly (cautiously, carefully, gently)
Galvanized (to coat metal with zinc, fire up, stir up)
Resignation (acceptance- usually of defeat, cease fighting for something)
Conjuring (magic tricks, illusion)
Writhed (squirmed, struggled, thrashed)
Breach (break a deal/contract, violate)
Spirit Bears
In 2004, a black mother with a white cub was discovered about 300 miles northwest of Beausejour near
Cedar Lake, Manitoba. Named Maskwa, this white cub carried a new mutation on the same gene that
determines coat color in Kermode bears.
These four white black bears are the only ones reported outside British Columbia in recent decades.
Spirit bears are rare black bears with white or creamy fur, brown eyes, dark nose pads, and nearly white
claws. They are not polar bears or albinos. Maybe 100 exist.
Most Spirit Bears live on Princess Royal and Gribbell Islands along the rainforest coast of British
Columbia. They are considered a subspecies of black bears called Kermode bears (Ursus americanus
kermodeii). About 20 percent of the bears on those islands are white; the rest are black. On the mainland,
the percentage of white bears drops off drastically with distance from those islands.
Dr. Kermit Rutland and Craig Newton studied the genetics of white black bears. The white fur of Kermode
bears is the result of a double recessive gene unique to this subspecies. A single nucleotide replacement
in the melanocortin-1 (Mc-1r) receptor portion of that gene causes it to produce adenine rather than
guanine. When both parents contribute this recessive gene, the result is white fur.
Outside British Columbia only about one in a million black bears is white. One of these white bears, a
subadult male, lived near Orr, Minnesota, in 1997. Hair samples showed him to be genetically different
from white Kermode bears. Named Halo, he caused such a media stir that the Minnesota legislature gave
protection to all white bears in the state, but Halo remains the only white bear ever reported in Minnesota.
However, the next sighting of a white black bear was only 200 miles northwest of Orr. In 2000, a black
mother with two white cubs turned up near Beausejour, Manitoba. The genetics of this family were not
studied. Some studies show the prevalence of Spirit Bears in Northern areas to be in four Black bears.
1. What is ironic about spirit bears?
2. What must happen, for a Spirit Bear to be born?