Dawe School students treated to photographer visit to learn about grizzly bear “The Boss”

Erickson built on this enthusiasm and built an art project into the lesson, which had students draw their own grizzly bear with a Christmas sweater twist, using one of Bantle’s images as inspiration.

She then reached out to Bantle’s team to show him the artworks, and he decided to drive from Canmore to Red Deer to see them himself.

“I’m really moved and very appreciative to see their love for nature, and then to give me a gift of prints they did themselves and their beautiful little art pieces with The Boss having Christmas sweaters on, I mean what a perfect time of year,” he reflected on the experience.

No one left empty-handed as Bantle was gifted a book containing a copy of each student’s drawing and hand-written notes on what they learned about The Boss and winter hibernation, and students were gifted signed and personalized prints of one of his photos of The Boss.

A book containing all of the students’ drawings and notes on what they learned about The Boss, which was gifted to Bantle after the discussion. (rdnewsNOW/Ashley Lavallee-Koenig)

“It’s overwhelming!” said Erickson. “We thought we might hear back from Jason, but the fact that he came to the classroom to meet the kids and give them a print of The Boss is incredible.”

Bantle is the founder of and photographer at All in the Wild Photography and Galleries, which runs out of Banff and Canmore, and has a master’s degree in biology. He explained, he uses his images to share stories about nature and conservation with the public, and student groups like this, in the hopes people will more greatly appreciate and try to conserve the outdoors.

“We know our planet is changing right now, we know that there’s some real struggles that are being faced in the current environment,” he said. “My goal and hope is that we have a voice for the animals that don’t have a voice.”

The Boss is such a well-known grizzly primarily due to his age, size, and antics, Bantle said.

At this point, The Boss is believed to be in his mid-20’s or possibly older, an impressive feat in an area where grizzlies are more likely to make it to their early teens. He also weighs in at anywhere from 600-800 pounds, while the average grizzly is typically in the 500–600-pound range.

“We have a lot of bears that die in their early teens there because of road strikes, railway strikes or human conflict, and so the boss has figured out a way to coexist with humans and not create problems where he himself ended up getting euthanized or something,” said Bantle.

The impressive animal has survived being struck by a train, a challenge from another bear known as Split-Lip, and has done so much travelling in his region, he is believed to have fathered over 50 per cent of the cubs in the valley.

“He’s legendary,” said Bantle, “he might be Canada’s most famous bear.”

by Ashley Lavallee-Koenig

Dawe School students treated to photographer visit to learn about grizzly bear “The Boss”

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