BANFF – Grizzly bears can live to be 30 years old in the wild, but that doesn’t happen too often in the busy and developed Bow Valley.
But male grizzly bear No. 122, a.k.a The Boss, has a history of dominance that is legendary as he navigates train tracks, highways and roads, millions of visitors, and communities across his 2,500-square-kilometre home range in Banff, Yoho and Kootenay national parks.
“He’s getting up to that age where bears in the park probably don’t go beyond 30 and to have a grizzly bear to get to the age of 30 is probably quite rare,” said Blair Fyten, human-wildlife coexistence specialist for Banff National Park.
“He is in his mid-20s and maybe even higher and he's kind of getting to the end of his term, but he’s a grizzly bear that still garners a lot of attention and we do ask people to respect him and give him the space he deserves.”
The Boss is the stuff of legends.
Weighing roughly 650 pounds at his best, his reputation is well deserved as the Bow Valley’s dominant bear, meaning he’s bred with most of the female bears in the area – and DNA has proven he has fathered many – and he has access to the best calorie-rich food sources.
His legendary status heightened when he reportedly survived a train strike near Vermilion Lakes in 2010, and made national headlines for killing and eating a black bear along Sundance Canyon trail near the Banff townsite in 2013.
He’s boldly strolled through Banff’s Central Park in broad daylight and he forced construction of an electric fence around a former dumpsite near Castle Mountain when he had a feast on steak bones and corn cobs.
However, more recently, the patriarch of Bow Valley grizzly bears has been left bloodied and scarred on his hind and face, likely a result of a fight or two with other large male bears, perhaps by his closest rival bear No. 136, a.k.a Split Lip for his disfigured mouth.
But, Fyten said, overall No. 122 seems to be looking “pretty healthy.”
He said the wildlife team spotted him in Lake Louise in late August and managed to snap some photos, showing he had a “really deep, nasty wound” on his hind and injury to his face.
“He’s been challenged by other male bears out there most likely, and having to defend his territory and mating rights,” he said.
“He’s been a dominant bear in this valley for so many years, but now he’s starting to be challenged by other bears, stronger bears or, maybe perhaps same size.”
Eventually, Fyten said The Boss will lose his order in the bear world hierarchy.
“It’s not that he gets pushed out of his area, but he’s more likely to not challenge another bear because he knows that he just doesn’t have the strength anymore and he might concede,” he said.
“Perhaps he’s starting to struggle a little bit to find food or, perhaps if he does find a carcass, he’s challenged by a bigger, stronger bear that pushes him off now, and so he is seeking other food sources, and perhaps why he’s trying to get into town. He realizes that he’s had rewards in the past.”
Brian Spreadbury, who worked in Lake Louise for 15 of his 21 years with Parks Canada in resource conservation and as a park warden, including eight as a human-wildlife conflict supervisor in Lake Louise before his retirement in 2021, knows The Boss well.
Spreadbury said by his calculations, The Boss is about 26 years old, noting he doesn’t believe a grizzly bear has reached beyond 28 years of age in Banff National Park based on age tooth tests.
“The old boy won’t get pushed out, but he may well fall rapidly down the dominance hierarchy, probably to Split Lip,” he said.
While dominance fights aren't uncommon with male grizzlies, Spreadbury doesn’t ever remember the Boss showing any signs of significant battle damage prior to spring 2018.
“From 2018 onward, the human-wildlife conflict crew would see facial wounds pretty much every year from what were obviously dominance-related fights,” he said.
In June 2020, Spreadbury said the Boss showed up in the Lake Louise area with significant injuries to his face and obvious injuries to a hip, which resulted in the big bear throwing a leg out and forward as he walked.
“He actually laid down in a meadow and basically didn’t move for a day-and-a-half, an unheard of circumstance for a big dominant bear during the mating season.
Some of us thought he might actually succumb to sepsis from his injuries but a day-and-a-half later he was up and moving like nothing happened,” he said.
“Bears have an incredible ability to recover from wounds and injuries that we would definitely die from without medical intervention. That August he was observed chasing Split Lip down the Bow Valley Parkway, asserting his dominance once again.”
With natural food sources diminishing in his familiar habitat as winter approaches, The Boss headed outside his typical territory to Canmore for the first time on Nov. 3. He was witnessed many times on his trek between Harvie Heights, where he feasted on fruit trees and mountain ash berries, and Canmore.
“We’ve had him pass through town here in Banff and he’s gone out east towards Harvie Heights before, but I believe this is the first time he’s actually gone to Canmore,” Fyten said.
After crossing busy Benchlands Trail as cars buzzed by, The Boss keyed in on a crabapple tree laden with rotten fruit in a Cougar Point Road yard, standing on his hind legs to peer over the six-foot high fence. However, monitored by RCMP and Canmore municipal enforcement, the big bear did not access fruit.
Up until the end of October, The Boss had been spending time closer to Lake Louise this fall, but Fyten said he started his journey east earlier this month, passing along the outskirts of the Banff townsite on Nov. 1.
He is easily recognized by his right ear, which is missing a portion of the top and distinguishes him from all other grizzlies in the area.
Fyten said the the wildlife team got word he was making his way down the train tracks near Banff so staff were quickly on scene.
“He came through and past the Fenlands centre and along the tracks there,” he said.
“We just kept monitoring him and just kept moving him along trying to keep him on the north side of the tracks.”
Fyten said at one point the big bear insisted on trying to get to the south side of the tracks and into the Marmot Crescent area where he got into crabapples last fall.
He said No. 122 came within 15 metres of staff, who hazed him by shouting and firing chalk ball rounds to stop him from venturing closer to the townsite.
“We just stayed in behind him and encouraged him to move in the direction that we wanted him to, but it was interesting because a little earlier this time last year, that’s where he got into that crabapple tree in the back of Marmot Place, and you know, bears don’t forget those rewards,” he said.
“I think what he was trying to do is circle back into there and have another look. That tree got removed last year, but there are other fruit trees in town still, so luckily we were able to intervene.”
From there, The Boss continued east and ambled beneath the Trans-Canada Highway via an underpass heading out to the airstrip at the base of Cascade Mountain. A day or two later he showed up in Harvie Heights and by Nov. 3 was in Canmore.
By Nov. 5, Fyten said the wildlife team had word The Boss was back near Banff Rocky Mountain Resort on the edge of the Banff townsite, where the wildlife team was on the ground monitoring him on his journey back west.
“He came down the tracks and was heading west, and the same thing in that same spot, he tried to turn and go south into town again,” he said.
“Likewise, we intervened and kept him moving west.”
Most bears have already gone into the den, particularly all female bears, including those with cubs which go in first; however, some of the larger male grizzly bears are still out and about looking to pack on last-minute calories.
While The Boss is always first out of the den – as early as Feb. 28 in 2020 but typically sometime in March – he is also last into the den.
Fyten said bear No. 122 was recorded wandering the landscape on a remote camera as late as Dec. 23 a few years back.
“Generally, he’s like a December type of bear when he tends to head to the den, and with the weather that we’re having now, I’d guess that he’d probably be out for another month,” he said.
“It’s all about the food source that’s available and there’s not a lot of food, but if he’s travelling the tracks and maybe picking up a little bit of grain here and there, and perhaps finding a carcass hit by a train, that provides a good food source.”
While the Boss is a dominant bear, Spreadbury said he is also well versed in dealing with a landscape dotted with many people – people he has learned to simply manoeuvre around.
“Bears are all about ‘risk versus reward’ … As the big bear ages he may well start exhibiting riskier behaviours, like leaving Banff park and wandering through Harvie Heights and Canmore,” he said.
Photos and videos show The Boss did get into fruit trees in Harvie Heights last week, something that doesn’t bode well for his future if he decides to head back out that way before going into his den for the winter.
If he does step outside the park, Spreadbury said he hopes The Boss’ fate is not similar to that of grizzly bear 148, a famous female bear relocated out of Canmore by provincial agencies in 2017 and eventually shot by a hunter in neighbouring British Columbia.
“Hopefully provincial agencies will deal with the big male bear, a bear who now fits into the geriatric category, with more finesse than they did with female bear F148,” he said.
"Seniors, regardless of species, need to be treated with respect.”
Fyten said Banff residents can continue to do their part to help The Boss by taking advantage of the Town of Banff’s fruit tree replacement program.
“It’s vitally important that people buy into this program, especially to get rid of their crabapple trees,” Fyten said.
“Once a bear finds these, as we’ve seen with 122 last year, they will try to keep coming back.”
Fyten also urges people to respect this magnificent bear and call in to Banff National Park dispatch at 403-762-1470 when he’s spotted.
“We just want him to enjoy the final years of his life here and do what bears do,” he said.
“We all hope that he just has a natural death in the end.”
