Snaggle Tooth

       The salmon finally arrived!  After weeks of waiting, and half hearted fishing attempts that didn’t land all that much meat, the salmon run had finally hit Hallo Bay at full force.  The bears all knew it, and they were now congregating in large groups at the mouth of the river.

John and I sat down in the wet, gravel filled, dark grey sand about fifteen feet from the edge of the river to watch the action.  We spotted some of our old friends – Paula and Racer and Bob were dashing through the water and proving once again to be the most proficient fish hunters.  But the salmon run had also brought out the big males and we were delighted to get to know some bears we hadn’t seen before. 

Far down the river, out near the ocean, we spotted a huge, old male with a snaggle tooth protruding from the left side of his mouth.  More accurately, a large portion of his lower jaw bone and a tooth were sticking outside of his mouth.  This phenomenon has to do with the physiology of a bear’s skull.  The jaw bone actually doesn’t entirely fuse together, thus making it susceptible to breaking.  I’ve been told that mostly males break their jaw bones, perhaps due to increased chances of getting into fights with one another.  Once the jaw bone breaks and/or gets dislodged out of place, the bone then heals crooked.  This is why you will occasionally see males with a protruding tooth.  Snaggle  Tooth had taken this phenomena to the extreme.  It looked like a quarter of his jaw was hanging outside of his lips.  It definitely looked like a painful original injury, and I wondered if the deformity of his jaw still caused him pain while eating and hunting.  I also wondered if it affects his ability to eat. 

He had the tell tale emaciated frame of a very old bear.  Snaggle Tooth had a huge, round belly that hung low to the ground.  His full grown, incredibly tall, male frame outsized his girth, and his withering shoulders reflected a bear past his prime.  I was beginning to notice – with these two males, and with Betsy, that thin shoulders and front legs seem to be a physical marker of aging bears.  Despite his condition, Snaggle Tooth stood in the river fishing as successfully as the other bears.

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© 2008 Jessica Teel