This black bear with light-coloured fur was photographed several times by Jayne Murray of Fort Smith, N.W.T., since it started hanging around the town in the spring. (Submitted by Jayne Murray)Seeing white bears in Canada's North is not unusual — high up on the Arctic coast, anyway — but residents of an N.W.T. town near the Alberta border were surprised to see a black bear with blond fur wandering around.

Jayne Murray of Fort Smith said she took several opportunities to photograph the blond black bear, which was actually one of a trio of siblings.

Murray first saw the bear in the Fort Smith area around early June, although she said there have been stories of similar sightings last year. She estimated the animal to be around 2½ years old.

"It looks like a big teddy bear in a lot of ways, depending on how you see it," Murray told CBC News in an interview airing Friday.

"Sometimes it looks a bit like a polar bear, sometimes it looks a bit like a panda, but it is a black bear."

The blond black bear became not only a tourist attraction, with people feeding it regularly, but many also believed it was a spiritual creature, said Murray.

"I know a lot of aboriginal people in the area were talking and saying, 'Please, you know, nobody hurt it. Look out for it, don't let anything bad happen to it,' because it was seen as a spirit guide," she said.

Murray said she has heard rumours that all three bears, including the blond black bear, have since been killed. (Submitted by Jayne Murray)Murray said the bear was being fed so much that it would start approaching people aggressively.

But Murray said there are rumours around town that the blond black bear and its two darker-haired siblings have all been killed in three separate incidents.

Someone told Murray the blond bear had been shot several weeks ago after it allegedly broke into a hunting camp, she said.