Wildlife

[Marianna]

Further to the Shoutbox comments on rattlesnakes coming down from the tops of the surrounding hills. This isn't a local bear, but this scene isn't unusual here in the village and in the neighboring city in the spring, when the bears in the surrounding woods wake from hibernation.

 

[Barrychuckle]

I think you're brave to live there! I'd be too scared to walk out into my garden in case I inadvertently trod on a rattlesnake or was confronted by a bear

 

[Marianna]

I've always lived within ten miles of here, except when I was away for college and university. The latter was in a large city — that was scary! When I was a youngster, we used to go harvesting to a nearby wilderness area which abounded in wild blueberries. I must have been told this at a very early age because it seems as though I've always known that if I met a bear while we were up there, just quietly walk away. It's their territory, not ours, so treat them and the territory with respect. It's black bears that are native to this area. They don't generally attack unless they're provoked, hence the "quietly walk away" advice.

As for rattlesnakes, never step over an obstruction from the shady side to the sunny side without looking at the area where you'll be putting your feet. Because they're cold-blooded, snakes always choose the sunny side for basking. Even if a snake isn't poisonous, you really don't want to step on it.

It's all just the rural equivalent to street-smarts.

 

[Barrychuckle]

I remember when I visited Canada a few years ago, I was warned if you see a bear I was to stay still in a ball!?

 

[Marianna]

Canada has many more species of bears than in my little region of New York State. There are grizzlies in Canada and in some regions of the US. They are vicious, even without provocation, so unless you're armed and are a crack shot best to play dead, taking the defensive position I learned in training for protests in the early '70s. Roll into a ball to protect your head and the organs and tissues that aren't protected by bone.

The brother of an acquaintance, who was a wildlife researcher specializing in bears, had one come barreling into his tent one night while on a research project deep in the Rocky Mountains. He always slept with a loaded rifle close at hand, and his reflexes were trained for just such an emergency. He shot it through the head at point blank range, saving both his own life and that of his girlfriend. He studied bears because he felt a kinship to them, so he was badly shaken more by the fact that he had killed one than that the bear would certainly have killed them if he hadn't done so.