The residents of Harvie Heights got a shock last weekend when the most famous bear in the Bow Valley, aka "The Boss" or Bear 122, came looking for crab apples. It was near the home of nature photographer Jason Leo Bantle, who runs art gallieries dedicated to wildlife photography in Canmore and Banff – but Bantle, in an interview with CTV News on Friday, confessed that he missed the whole glorious photo op. “He walked right by my house in Harvie Heights -- and I’m a professional nature photographer and biologist,” Bantle said.
"(But) it was middle of the day! I wasn’t home!” That night, Bantle saw the news on his social media feed and was pretty crushed. Fortunately for Bantle, The Boss had a nose for those crab apples, and reappeared the next day -- only to discover the tree was gone. Apparently, Bantle's neighbour made a hard choice after the surprise visit.
“The Sunday night after he visited, it was a hard decision for her -- she’d planted the tree with her husband 40 years earlier -- but she cut the tree down," Bantle said, "(and then she) cleaned up all of the fruit on the ground and such and made sure it wasn’t attractive when he returned the next day.” That didn’t deter The Boss, who scoured the area, including climbing up some difficult areas, searching for a meal. The Boss was looking for crab apples to fill up on prior to winter hibernation “He was tenacious – he was looking around her yard for an hour, like it was quite unique,” Bantle sa.
