export_ofoct.com - 2020-04-06T122335.761

[00:02.14] Adria: So you said you're kind of a wilderness boy.

[00:04.64] What are your thoughts on encroachment?

[00:06.64] Is it a problem where you live?

[00:08.14] Shiloh: Yeah, I live up in the mountains, Adria.

[00:10.39] My home is above 3,000 meters, so I live at a very high altitude.

[00:13.14] It's--I live in the Rocky Mountains, so it's very rugged.

[00:17.14] There aren't very many people.

[00:18.64] There are still tons of animals.

[00:20.39] And wild animal encroachment is a big problem, especially in my area of the Rocky Mountains, because we have many black bears.

[00:28.14] Black bears aren't as dangerous as brown bears like there are at the north.

[00:31.89] They're not aggressive, but they're a huge nuisance, and they cause a lot of damage.

[00:35.89] For instance, I've spent a lot of time in a cabin up in the mountains.

[00:40.64] This particular cabin has been broken into by bears.

[00:43.89] Last year, in about six months, we had four different bears come in through the cabin, and they'll knock down the front door, they'll destroy the inside of the house.

[00:52.14] The refrigerator's knocked over, food everywhere.

[00:54.89] They'll break through windows. They stink; they go to the bathroom.

[00:58.89] It's a terrible mess that I had to clean up, and I had to do this.

[01:02.89] And it's interesting because in these situations, we didn't do anything to attract the bear. We live in a very rural area.

[01:11.89] There's nobody around for kilometers.

[01:14.14] This was up, you know, remote cabin.

[01:16.14] There's no reason for the bear to be there, other than curiosity.

[01:18.64] There was no food in the cabin at the time.

[01:20.89] I think that bears' encroaching on civilians, on more urban populations, is becoming increasingly a problem, partly because they're losing their territory.

[01:32.64] People are encroaching--people are actually encroaching upon the bears.

[01:36.14] The bears aren't encroaching upon the people.

[01:37.89] It's the other way around. And we have to expect that they are going to be curious and be hungry because they have no food.

[01:43.64] So we can't really blame them when it happens.

[01:46.14] But we have to figure out a way to fix it, because it is a problem and people still do get hurt,

[01:50.39] especially with mountain lions, which is a big deal.

[01:52.89] Adria: So, have you had any personal experience or anybody you know that's been like physically harmed by one of these animals?

[02:00.39] Shiloh: Well, mountain lions, not, no, because although we have a lot of mountain lions, they are cats and you never see them.

[02:07.14] They kill a lot of animals. Mountain lions, especially, will kill a lot of sheep and baby calves, which we have many where I live, so in that sense, it's a problem.

[02:19.14] They cause a lot of monetary damage because a cow costs $500, and they're killing cows.

[02:26.14] But as far as people go, cats don't really hurt people.

[02:32.89] Bears, on the other hand, do. Up in the northern states of the United States, brown bears are very dangerous.

[02:37.14] They're aggressive. They'll actually come after humans.

[02:39.89] Where I live, we have brown bears, and they're a little less aggressive.

[02:43.14] But I still am familiar with one of my friends (he's not really a friend but an acquaintance) who was camping,

[02:49.64] and it was partly his mistake because he had food inside his tent with him, instead of like in an ice chest outside close.

[02:54.39] The bear came through the tent and, while trying to grab the food, accidentally grabbed my friend's arm,

[03:01.14] and he had a huge gash on his arm.

[03:03.89] He had to have two surgeries to fix it, lots of stitches. It was a mess.