It seems that for this portrait this grizzly bear was showing us his ‘pearly whites’, but really he was just chewing some sedge. Not heard much these days, but the term ‘pearly whites’ is an old English term referring to teeth, which dates back to a time when good, ‘pearl’ white teeth, were seen as a person’s good health. It was also used jokingly or sarcastically to refer to the yellowing or poor condition of someone’s teeth too – “look at the pearly whites on him” for example.
