BOSS ON THE MOVE
During Covid in July 2020, John, his wife Jenn, and their son Porter, were camping at Protection Mountain Campground near Lake Louise in a deserted campground. As John and Porter put some recyclable cans into a bin near their trailer, they came face-to-face with one of the largest male grizzly bears in Banff, the notorious Split Lip. John quickly determined that Split Lip was more interested in eating dandelions than in people, so he got Porter back to the trailer and the family jumped into their vehicle to photograph Split Lip at a little meadow full of dandelions near the campground entrance.
As John photographed, Jenn suddenly exclaimed,
“There’s another bear coming!”
John turned just in time to see the Boss, Banff’s most legendary bear, and the most famous bear in Canada, as he stalked across into the meadow and charged Split Lip. What ensued was five minutes of utter chaos as Split Lip narrowly dodged the Boss’ clawed swipe at his head and raced out of the meadow onto the neighbouring Bow Valley Parkway, where the Boss chased Split Lip for three kilometres down the middle of the road as darkness fell.
The next morning, John was up at 5 am driving down the Parkway when he encountered the Boss again, in a much better mood, as the big, old fellow marched across in front of John toward the Bow River.
The Boss is now estimated to be between 25 and 30 years old and is still one of the largest, most dominant male grizzly bears in Banff National Park.
