North Carolina man sets up watering hole, cameras to capture wildlife in backyard
By Peyton Furtado
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HENDERSONVILLE, North Carolina (WYFF) — As our region continues to grow, wildlife in our own backyard has to adapt.
Hendersonville resident Tom Brass set up a watering hole and cameras in his moss-carpeted backyard when he realized bobcats, coyotes and bears regularly make their way through the neighborhood.
“They don’t want to attack people,” Brass said. “They just want to be left alone and live out their lives in the woods.”
Brass posts his daily encounters to his YouTube channel, Wildlife Behind Our Home in Hendersonville, NC.
At this point, he barely bats an eye when he sees bobcats or bears.
“The bear was sleeping in that thicket right up there,” he said, describing the last time he stumbled on a bear. “And he growled at me. He just kind of did his warning growl, which went, ruhhhh. And I was like oh ok, turned around and walked back. Like we were saying earlier, people are finding them asleep under their porches now.”
As western North Carolina cities build to accommodate growth, a North Carolina State University and North Carolina Wildlife Commission study shows animals are becoming more comfortable around humans with nowhere else to go, bears growing and reproducing twice as fast most likely due to changing eating habits, like eating garbage and human food from neighborhoods like Brass’.
“It’s like a channel for the animals. They come through here through all the neighborhoods looking for trashcans and pumpkins,” Brass said.
As this growth continues, wildlife is learning to live in neighborhoods and city centers, posing new challenges, but also bringing the beauty and call of the wild into our own backyards.
“I think they’re beautiful,” Brass said. “I think they’re all God’s creation, and I just enjoy them for what they are. I know that there’s bad associated with them, and so is there with people. There’s good and bad with everything.”
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