Live Streaming: Great Adventure in the Wilderness

Chapter 527: Chapter 524: Boss Yao, One Step Ahead

[Population aging leads to a surge in bear numbers, a path never before envisioned.]

[All the young people have gone to work, and now this is my kingdom, Black Bear King, hahahahaha]

[Can this black bear steal a cassock?]

“If you don’t believe it, that just shows you haven’t grasped the deeper meaning here,” Bi Fang said meaningfully.

Everything is interconnected, especially humans and nature. Changes in human society have a significant impact on nature.

“By the end of the last century, Japan was developing rapidly, and cities were siphoning labor from the surrounding areas like a whale sucking in water, drawing many young people from villages into urban areas, resulting in serious aging in the countryside. As the elderly gradually passed away, many villages even became ‘ghost villages.'”

“For instance, in 2015, in Japan, as many as 190 villages ceased to exist.”

Bi Fang casually mentioned a set of statistics, which left the audience stunned. Had so many villages vanished within a single year?

Becoming a ghost village isn’t something that happens overnight, plus with the current economic slump in Japan, wouldn’t there have been even more before?

With the disappearance of villages, the habitats for wild animals have effectively increased.

A village composed of hundreds of humans has an extremely vast impact on nature.

The disappearance of hundreds, even thousands of village-like nails, has opened up a paradise for numerous wild animals, where no overpowering civilization exists anymore.

Furthermore, the transition to different energy sources and building materials has reduced the demand for wood, allowing trees to grow lush and strong.

“At this time, the trees around the villages grew thickly, and the ghost villages became a paradise for wild animals. But a problem arose. With the decline in carnivores, mainly wolves – as the Japanese wolf had been extinct for a long time – wild deer started proliferating to the point of being a nuisance.”

At this, many in the audience had already caught on.

Many people learned in elementary school about a lesson where, in an attempt to protect deer, wolves were extensively culled, resulting in an explosion in the deer population that led to the destruction of entire forests.

“With the absence of natural predators, the deer’s ability to flee weakened, giving omnivorous bears, which primarily consume a vegetarian diet, a very stable source of meat. And so, by the end of the 20th century, bears discreetly started multiplying across many areas of Japan.”

“Black bears and brown bears have similar reproductive abilities, gestating for about seven months, and then birthing 1-4 cubs at once.”

“At that time, there were no natural predators for bears in Japan, so the survival rate for bear cubs was extremely high. Plus, with increasingly fewer people around where bears roamed, by the early 21st century, wild bears began to proliferate.”

“The significant increase in bear numbers led to an obvious shortage of food within their natural habitats.”

“At this point, black bears and brown bears started descending from the mountains in search of food near human habitations, increasing the incidence of human-bear conflicts.”

“I’ve specifically looked this up; according to statistics from Japan’s Ministry of Environment, in the 1990s, there were only about 20-40 bear attacks on humans each year. However, this number began to rise in the 21st century, escalating to an average of 95 bear attacks per year since 2008.”

Bi Fang explained that the severe incidents he had shown Jerret and the others were just a few out of many bear attacks that happened every year.

According to Japanese statistics, there are about 22,000 to 30,000 brown bears and black bears, and considering their reproductive rate, Japan had to establish an annual plan to cull thousands of bears to keep their numbers in a relatively stable state.

[Wori, ninety-five attacks a year, that’s too many, right?]

[The bears have become a plague]

[I want to eat bear paw]

[Damn, it just occurred to me, does this mean Old Fang can eat bear paw this time?]

Seeing the comments, Bi Fang stopped in his tracks and thought carefully about the rules; it seemed that the Japanese government hadn’t explicitly stated all hunted game must be handed over?

“A complete bear paw is worth one point, and it’s not stipulated that one can’t forego this point. Theoretically, it seems possible.”

Damn, can I actually eat bear paw?

Realizing this, Bi Fang himself was stunned.

The audience was astonished.

[Holy shit, can we actually eat it?]

[Send me some, I want to taste that delicacy.]

What does bear paw taste like?

You can’t have both fish and bear’s paws, and ninety-nine percent of people know what fish tastes like, but bear has never crossed their minds to taste, because after such a meal, one would have to go back to a simple diet of clear broth and rice.

In most parts of the world, brown bears and black bears are protected wildlife, especially in Huaxia, where they’re even considered national second-class protected animals.

Around the world, only Japan and Russia are the exceptions. The latter has a wide distribution and large number of bears inherently, while the former is due to ecological imbalance.

The frequent occurrences of “bear sightings” have forced Japan to annually cull thousands of bears, but even so, “human-bear conflicts” have not been resolved.

Under such circumstances, Bi Fang was fortuitously given the chance to taste bear paw.

Rubbing his hands together, Bi Fang rolled up his sleeves.

“`

The Kii Peninsula is in the subtropics with many mosquitoes, especially in the height of summer. He still vividly remembered how, when he first went to the Banna Rainforest, there was only one reported case of Dengue fever in the news. However, by the end of the live broadcast, there were hundreds more.

To avoid being bitten by various insects, despite the hot weather, Bi Fang didn’t wear short sleeves but a thin shirt instead.

Now he was genuinely interested.

Bear paws, eh? Normally, he wouldn’t even dare to think about it, so shouldn’t he give it a try?

“If you want to do something well, you must first sharpen your tools. Human strength is ultimately much weaker than a bear’s. If you want to deal with a bear, you must choose to use long-range or polearm weapons. Although I only brought two daggers, I’m going to use them to make a spear,” he said.

Bi Fang moved through the forest, selecting the right wood. Regardless of whether it was an iron spear, Stone Spear, or just a simple wood spear, one couldn’t be careless in choosing the trees.

“The spear shaft must be tough and at least not break easily under great pressure.”

“Generally speaking, there are two kinds of wood: softwood and hardwood. Softwoods primarily grow in the north, while hardwoods primarily grow in the south.”

“Most softwoods have a denser quality and grow slowly, making them excellent materials for wooden spears, such as Northeast China pine, Manchurian ash, and oak.”

“The quality of hardwoods is more complicated, with some being rather loose, such as fir wood, but others are exceptionally dense, such as camphor wood and rosewood, and so on.”

[Rosewood for a spear, that’s a bold idea]

[The bolder the person, the more expensive the wooden spear]

“The Kii Peninsula lies on typhoon paths and climate fronts, making it one of the wettest areas in Japan. It has subtropical plants like banyan and palm trees as well as temperate sweetgum forests. The inland is mountainous, with an abundance of Yezo spruce. This might add some difficulty to our material search. If possible, we should choose camphor wood.”

“Camphor trees are originally from Japan, the Ryukyu Islands, Huaxia, and Southeast Asia. Camphor wood is fragrant throughout, with dense wood, tenacious texture, and is soft yet tough. It doesn’t break easily and is less likely to crack. It’s my ideal material,” he said.

Bi Fang’s nostrils flared slightly as he caught the scent molecules in the air.

Camphor wood contains a wealth of volatile oils and has a strong unique fragrance, which is one of the high-quality sources of perfume extraction. So, the scent is very intense; if it’s nearby, the aroma is sure to be rich.

With Bi Fang’s current sense of smell, as he walked through the forest, he quickly caught a faint fragrance, fresh and pleasant, and he followed the scent.

About three hundred meters later, an enormous tree appeared in front of everyone.@@novelbin@@

[Wow, this tree is so tall!]

[It’s like thirty or forty meters, right?]

[Train your eye, this one’s about twenty-five meters]

Bi Fang nodded and said, “Camphor trees are evergreen trees from the laurel family, they can reach up to fifty meters high, and some are hundreds or even thousands of years old, making them true towering ancient trees.”

“However, such tall camphor trees are rare to see. This one here is over twenty meters. The ones we commonly see are between fifteen and twenty meters tall.”

The air was so fragrant that it was almost suffocating.

Bi Fang rubbed his nose, put down his backpack, and prepared to climb the tree to select a few suitable branches, stepping on the trunk and slowly climbing up.

“Camphor is renowned along with nanmu, zelkova, and paulownia as the four famous woods of Jiangnan. It can be said that every part of it is a treasure. Camphor oil extracted from the roots, stems, and leaves can be used to make film rolls and sheets. The leaves can be used to extract camphor for use in agriculture, such as controlling rice borers. Silkworms fed with camphor leaves produce silk that can be used for weaving fishing nets and even as surgical sutures.”

Having chosen a straight branch, Bi Fang took out his Harpoon, aimed at the base, and chopped down fiercely.

“The key point is, we can also use the leaves of the camphor tree for insect repellent.”

“In the summer, if you go outdoors, you can try picking camphor leaves, crushing them, and applying them to your hands and feet. It has a mosquito-repellent effect. However, camphor trees can also be afflicted by diseases and pests. That’s how Nature is, always one thing countering another.”

Three straight Tree sticks fell from the leaves and landed on the ground.

Bi Fang grabbed a thick branch, jumped down from the air, rolled over, and picked up the Tree sticks from the ground.

“A Spear should not be too long, being about your height is enough, too long and it’s not only inconvenient to use, but it also increases the risk of breaking. We can now start a fire and briefly process them.”

Bi Fang gathered some dry grass nearby, dug a pit, and took out a Firesteel from his bag. With a gentle scrape, a lot of sparks flew, and the flames were quickly ignited.

Whether it’s the bow drill, hand drill, or the cord-saw method, none could compare at this moment.

“Industrial products make fire starting so much quicker.”

The firelight illuminated Bi Fang’s face.

The moment magnesium rod struck, it was almost like igniting a blaze in his hand. If he didn’t hold on to the handle at the back, he could have burned off a layer of skin from his fingers.

[I’ll bet a package of spicy strips that Old Fang’s same model of Firesteel will be on the clubhouse’s mini-mart shelves within half an hour.]

[You lose, it was stocked before this live broadcast.]]

[Boss Yao is always one step ahead.]

Sitting in front of the campfire, Bi Fang took out his Harpoon and silently carved the wooden spear.

“`