Interesting. The island I hunted I NEVER saw anything but black nor ever heard of anything but black.
That said, the majority of bears I shot did have the white chest chevron.
Weird... I just had this conversation with a millwright at work. He and I always get into Bears in NW Montana in the Spring and Fall. The country I hunt, I'm going to say 2/3rds are color phase, and the third that are straight up East Coast jet black, textbook Black Bears are sows with cubs.
When BGG and Deflave rolled into town, one of the first things I told them was "don't look at the colors, look at the features" Sure enough, the one they let skamper off was a Neopolotin, Faux Griz... I've had it happen to myself as well... A year ago today, I let the biggest blonde topped, cinnimon bear I've ever seen walk on by. I was positive it was a griz, until he turned broadside and walked out of my life forever
I'm pretty sure that my neck of the woods is why Montana started the Bear ID test....
Its worth mentioning, that I HAVE seen color phase Grizzlies too [WTF?]
