He’s got a reputation as a big, badass bear – but he’s just doing what he’s meant to do.
Grizzly bear 122 made national headlines this summer as “serial killer” bear after he hunted and ate a black bear on a busy trail near Banff’s Sundance Canyon and then feasted on an elk at Marble Canyon in Kootenay National Park.
He’s a huge and spectacular animal, weighing an estimated 650 to 700 pounds, trying to survive in a busy and developed landscape with millions of tourists, residents and a national transportation corridor.
“He’s definitely no serial killer, but a bear taking advantage of an opportunity to get high calorie and high protein meals,” said Brianna Burley, a human-wildlife conflict specialist for Lake Louise, Yoho and Kootenay.
“He’s just a bear being a bear… It’s just that it happened to be in high visitor use areas in the front country, rather than in the backcountry where we may never have known about it.”
More recently, bear 122 enjoyed a high-calorie feast on an elk that had fallen through thin ice and drowned in the Bow River a few hundred metres upstream from the Banff townsite. The feast went on for an entire week from Nov. 13-20.
“When we initially investigated, the carcass was still right in the middle of the river and he was observed testing the ice,” said Steve Michel, human-wildlife conflict specialist for Banff National Park.
“He was seen right on top of it in the middle of the river, but subsequently, he did drag the entire elk onto the shore sometime over the next day.”
Resource conservation officers immediately put an area closure in place. They didn’t want people stumbling upon a large grizzly, and wanted to give the bruin a secure space to feed in the lead up to hibernation.
The closure was lifted on Nov. 21 once they were sure the bear had moved on. He had been spotted on the Sunshine access road the day before.
“Had we received a report of an elk in the water prior to the grizzly bear report, we would have removed the elk,” said Michel, noting the location is very close to the townsite, just upstream of the canoe docks.
“But once a bear was on it, it became too dangerous from a staff standpoint, so we decided to put an area closure in place at that time.”
After pulling the cow elk onto the riverbank, 122 covered its food with spruce boughs to claim it as his own. He was seen even sleeping on it.
“He had consumed the entire carcass. There was nothing left but the hide,” said Michel. “He’s big and healthy and he’s got some swagger in his step as usual.”
Though classified as carnivores, grizzly bears are omnivorous. In this region, they eat a variety of plants at specific stages of growth throughout the year, including hedysarum, the bulbs of glacier lily, horsetail, introduced clover and dandelion, as well as cow parsnip and berries.
According to Parks Canada’s website, meat is estimated to constitute about 15 per cent of their diet. Winter-killed wildlife is an important source of protein and fat in spring and bears will prey on newborn elk calves and other ungulates if the opportunity arises.
“We know around here the go-to food is berries and roots, but they absolutely are happy to take advantage of some meats,” said Burley.
In early August, bear 122 killed a black bear in the Sundance Canyon area. The feast took two days and the entire black bear was consumed. He ate a black bear the year before, too.
A couple of weeks later the giant bruin forced closure of Marble Canyon in Kootenay National Park, about 50 kilometres away, because he was enjoying a fresh feed of elk in close proximity to watching tourists.
In that instance, wildlife experts suspect 122 had chased a wolf pack off the elk carcass.
“It might have been wolves who had run the elk off the canyon because there were a lot of wolf tracks,” said Burley. “We assumed wolves killed it and he took advantage of that.”
Parks Canada first captured bear 122 in spring of 2012 as part of a joint Parks Canada-Canadian Pacific Railway plan to try to reduce the number of bear deaths on the train tracks.
At the time of his capture, he weighed about 488 pounds and was estimated to be 10 to 14 years old.
The bruin was fitted with a GPS collar, which subsequently fell off after he got into a fight with another big bear. He was recaptured and given a new GPS collar a couple of weeks later.
Although that collar has not worked since May of this year, Burley said researchers were able to gather interesting information for the time it was functioning.
“We got a really good sense of what he does to make a living out there, how much time he spends on railway tracks and how much time he spends out of the Bow Valley,” she said. “It was interesting to get that perspective on one of the large males.”
Burley said she finds it amazing that a bruin of this size is managing to eke out a living in such a busy landscape.
“He’s a large bear, but he doesn’t give us any grief. He’s not a bear we’ve had to manage,” she said. “He’s making a living here and he’s not causing a big fuss. It’s pretty neat that he’s out there doing his own thing.”
Home ranges for grizzlies in this region vary greatly, though the average home range for a male grizzly in the Central Rockies is 1,000 to 2,000 square kilometres, compared to female range of 200 to 500 square kilometres.
Bear 122 has a huge home range, covering the southern half of Banff National Park, the northern section of Kootenay National Park, the western part of Yoho National Park and portions of provincial lands in Mount Assiniboine.
Last year, he denned on Dec. 3 and was the first of the collared bears to emerge in spring. His GPS collar showed he began moving on March 17 and the first confirmed sighting of him was March 21 near the Sunshine interchange.
Michel said the week-long feast on the elk carcass in mid-November was a great food source for 122 heading into the den.
“Obviously a significant high energy source of food, with abundant calories, is critical as we head into this pre-hibernation period. This is exactly what he needed prior to going into his den,” said Michel.
“It’s hard to say when he will den and we won’t know because he doesn’t have radio collar on him right now, but whenever that is he will certainly go in with exceptional body condition.”
To check out video footage of 122 feeding on the elk carcass near Banff in mid-November, visit the Banff National Park You Tube page.
