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Luckily, he had his camera at the ready.

“He then made eye contact with me and I managed to capture that, and he came a little closer, he never changed the pace he was walking at unless he stopped to sniff something in the air, probably me,” said Boland.

The bear emerged between two small trees, and snow had fallen on him, which to Boland was a “once in a lifetime moment.”

Boland had a feeling it was The Boss — also known as grizzly bear No. 122 — which Boland said he later confirmed with some locals.

Boland said what stood out was the animal’s sheer size, along with the fact part of the bear’s ear was missing, he had no tag and his back right leg was “a little off,” likely from a train accident a few years ago.

The heavy-set bear has made headlines previously for breaking into a dump, eating a couple of black bears, strolling through Banff’s Central Park in the middle of the day and fathering at least five of the park’s younger bears.

Kim Titchener, a human-wildlife conflict expert and founder of Bear Safety & More said she wouldn’t be surprised if The Boss was out and about this late in the season.

“Of all the bears, it’s going to be the big males that are the last to go to bed. The females who are pregnant, the females with young cubs, they go into the den a lot earlier. Those go in first and then the older, larger males, they don’t need to be in the den quite as long as the others,” said Titchener.

“They actually come out the first. So they den the least amount of time. It makes sense. The Boss is an older guy, he’s a big guy, so I believe it absolutely if someone says they saw The Boss in November. I’d say, ‘yup, totally possible.’ ”

As bears go into their dens for the winter, Titchener said it’s important to be aware of your surroundings and still carry bear spray while visiting the mountains.

“Black bears don’t den as high as grizzly bears in the mountains, so they are denning in some areas as low as the valley floor,” said Titchener.

“So going off into the bush, going bushwhacking, isn’t really a good idea because you could disturb the bear in its den.”

Bear spray can also be used in encounters with other wildlife, such as cougars, wolves and even moose.

On Twitter: @JunkerAnna