While visiting Canada's Great Bear Rainforest, 63-year-old photographer Steven Rose scored an incredibly rare subject: a spirit bear. Less than 400 of the white breed are thought to exist in British Columbia, according to National Geographic, and Rose scored a series of shots of one including the moment it caught a fish. "I have clients who have gone on trips in previous years and not seen one during the whole week they were there," Rose, a photography tour guide, tells Caters News. "I am a lucky guy to have been able to witness this."

Spirit bears are also known as Kermode bears, a subspecies of the American black bear. They stand out for their white fur, which is due not to albinism but to an exceptional variation in their melanin production gene, making them white. While Rose spotted one in British Columbia, spirit bears are most likely to be seen on the Gribbell, Princess Royal or Roderick islands. There, the Daily Mail reports, one in 10 bears are spirit bears.

In addition to their startling color, the animals hold religious significance to the indigenous Tsimshian peoples, who refer to the bears as "moksgm'ol," or "white bear," the BBC's Discover Wildlife reports. Tsimshian culture includes the bears in multiple mythological tales, including one in which spirit bears were created by the universe's maker as a reminder of the final ice age.

Hunting spirit bears has been illegal since the mid-20th century. "The bears can be seen cleverly digging up the eggs laid by the salmon by clawing away the sand on the riverbed to expose the eggs, then gulping them up," says Rose.