Japan Has a Bear Problem | Flashback Friday

Astonishing Legends Network. It's Flashback Friday, and you know what that means. A classic episode of Scared All the Time's fan-favorite bonus show, New Fear Unlocked, is out of the vault and on the main feed. This episode originally aired on Patreon December 4th, 2025, but is being played by you right now. Disclaimer. This episode includes the usual amount of adult language and graphic discussions you've come to expect around here. But in the event it becomes an unusual amount, expect another call from me. You can't take a week off Not when the people need content So it's time to fill the trough With something halfway decent That only sort of rhymed Which is about halfway to decent So we're doing fine. Hi there, welcome back to New Fear Unlocked. You're probably wondering why I am. Introducing the show. Don't worry, Chris will do it again in a second. Just wanted to pop in to let those watching along know that Ed forgot to hit record on the video for the first three minutes, and so I, a simple trivia bot, has been tasked with fixing this. It's not really what I do, but I think I nailed it. I'm confident no one watching will even notice their absence in the beginning. Enjoy the show. Hey guys, welcome back to a very special episode of a now remotely recorded New Fear Unlocked. Not forever, guys. Don't worry. I know you were just getting used to our incredible set that we paid a production designer inordinate sums of money to create. Yeah, and I was just getting used to zooming in and pushing the camera so you can't see our guts, and you still also can't see anything cool on the walls, so. Well, yeah. This is a stopgap. It's a real shame because we paid a psychologist to do an entire multi-page breakdown of the character that Ed plays on the show to try to figure out what that person's house would look like were he to set up a faux podcast recording studio in his living room in a very half-assed manner. And the production designer recreated what that would look like to a T. I just want to say, incredible job. We spent all the Patreon money. No, we have. We definitely didn't. I don't like to even joke about that. All the money goes into the show, and it's not on that. But it was interesting to see the production designer take down everything that was Steve's, but then put back up exactly identically what was his. Yes. So in a lot of ways, it feels like a waste of money. Yes. Well, it's not a waste of money because it's feeding the production designer's family. But yes, in terms of the quality that we got, it's great quality that we could have achieved by just not doing any of this. And it would have looked exactly the same. But it's a really... It's, you know, we're playing with reality. It's different for you guys. And now that we're doing this over Zoom, you're not going to be able to see that beautiful set. Instead, you see the crummy bathroom behind me that many of you have come to love. And what looks like a much nicer setting behind Ed, very cozy. That's just a home. I turned off the light on the ceiling. That was a big thing of contention, of complaints during the live show. The giant light over my head. Was it or was it just you complaining? I don't think anybody had a problem. I heard from two people. Oh, okay. Two people. They're family members. I see. But I still heard from them. Okay, well. Who were like, turn that fucking light off. Guys, we have... Part of the reason, the other reason that we're doing this remotely is because Ed and I are afraid to go outside. And the reason we're afraid to go outside is because... I don't know if you've seen these headlines, but bear attacks are increasing around. Oh, my God, Chris. What? I don't think it matters. I think there's a way to still save this. What? I never hit record on the video. No, there's no way to save this because it's a video podcast now. No. We've been recording audio this whole time. Son of a... Should I just do it and then... And just have it be still images of us until... Sure. I don't know how many minutes. You know what? Fire the fucking producer. Um. Just kidding. Can't do that. It's all good. It's all good. Guys, the banter is great. If you're listening to it, which most of you are, you're not even going to know there's no video. And if you've been watching it, you've probably seen computer-generated still images of what Ed and I would look like in a Pixar movie. Sometimes I use that. If it's longer than two minutes, I might have to put some video of waves or something. I don't know. You know what you should do? You should just use a still of the room that we were just discussing and put our CG images over it. Well, what's funny is, remember when I told you that I wanted us to have green screen for these, and then, ironically, a fan sent us green screen for you, but completely unrelated, just because they hate that your background looks like dog shit every time you move and put your hand up and try and show a beer? Mm-hmm. I had asked you that because I was going to take a picture of that room and then, like, green screen us into that room still. Perfect. But I forgot about. It, and. Perfect. Well, as I was saying, the reason we're afraid to go outside is bear attacks are on the rise. Particularly, not really in the United States. Mostly, as we're learning here, in Japan, which is not where we are. But they are on the rise so much that I'm pretty sure this is going to spread to the states sooner than later. So we are just taking some precautions and hunkering down inside. But for today's New Fear Unlocked, we are covering... The Japanese bear attacks, based around a couple different articles that I found, but we will jump in on the New York Post article because they have the wild and true headline, Japan suffered deadliest month of bear attacks in history with seven deaths and 88 maulings in September. Or I'm sorry, in October, not September. This article was published November 22nd, 2025. So just before Thanksgiving time. They were letting us know how bad things have gotten in Japan. It's so crazy. I don't know about, I'm sure you'll tell me, but you won't because this isn't a fully researched episode, but I have to imagine this is not normal, right? Like, it's not like, oh, it's up 86. It's up to 86 from 84 last year. No, it's up a significant amount. And I actually did do quite a bit of research. Well, not quite a bit, but I used four different articles here to put this article together. or to put today's episode together. You triangulated a River 4 version of that. You quadrilated. You quadrilated. Oh, dude, I quadrilated. I triangulated. I. Dosopolated. You see where that one's going. But I do have a stat here that in 2024, Japan had 219 bear attacks and just six deaths total. So there are, you know... Still feels like a lot. Yes. Yes. Yes, but there's always bear attacks in Japan, is what we're learning. There are a lot of bears in Japan, two different species. There are the Asiatic black bears in Japan, which can weigh up to 300 pounds, and they do have brown bears in Japan, but they are just on the northern island of Hokkaido, and they can weigh up to 400 kilograms, which I did not do the math for pounds, but Yeah, no, it seems big. They're big. They're big. And also much more dangerous than the black bears, I believe, but just in one place. So this article begins, Japan is in the midst of a wave of deadly bear attacks with seven people killed and 88 others mauled in the deadliest month for such incidents in the nation's history, according to reports. Wow. Wow. The Land of the Rising Sun's Environment Ministry reported the record high October figures that capped off a six-month period beginning in April that saw a total of 12 people killed and 196 mauled. Oh, my God. They're going to have to change the motto there to the Land of the Rising Bear Attack Statistics. Yeah. You can keep it red. You can keep it red on white. Yep. That rising sun is filled with blood. Yeah. Yeah. The incidents have occurred in 21 of the country's 47 prefectures and have spread from mostly rural areas to now plaguing urban centers. I think it's prefectures. Like a before-effecture. The incidents have occurred in 21 of the country's 47 prefectures and have spread from mostly rural areas to now plaguing urban centers. One shocking video taken by a security camera in Daisen, a city of 76,000 people, showed an 82-year-old woman attacked from behind while casually crossing the street on a morning walk. It's a coward. The bear's a coward, dude. This bear was playing the knockout game, and it got caught on camera attacking this woman. She was treated at a local hospital for cuts on her face, but was otherwise fine. Oh. On October 17th, a 60-year-old spa worker and women's professional wrestling referee, Katsumi Sasazaki, was mauled to death while cleaning an outdoor bath along a river in Iwate in the northern part of the nation's large island. Okay. On October 8th, two people were hurt in a grocery store in central Tokyo and after a black bear broke in looking for food. Why did the only person we got their profession, the referee? Because that's a hell of a profession. I guess. Spa worker and women's professional wrestling referee. RIP, God bless to that person. And she was both? She was a spa worker and she was both. Yes, although I don't know. So maybe they brought it up because they were like, this lady doesn't even have fucking time for this shit. She doesn't have time to be attacked by bears. I don't know. Katsumi Sasazaki, I don't know if Katsumi is a male or a female. I assume if you're a women's professional wrestling referee, you might be a female. That's how I got there, but no guarantees on that. There is one other attack that made headlines in October. In Miyagi Prefecture, one unidentified woman was attacked and killed while picking mushrooms. On October 4th. Do you think they were picking mushrooms because Mr. Miyagi gave it to them as some sort of way to learn karate without them realizing? I think. Is that how... Does it come from there, Mr. Miyagi? One might assume, or possibly the writers of The Karate Kid made a slightly racist leap in naming there. Well, I would hate to learn... That she was maybe three to four mushroom picking months away before having the skills to defend herself from the bear attack? I think maybe this unidentified woman was picking mushrooms to bake into pies and kill her family. Oh, in which case the bears did us a favor. Yes. The bear had been listening to our show and said, Jesus Christ, someone has to stop her. Oh my gosh. Things have gotten so bad that the United States, China, and Britain actually issued travel advisories about the dangers of bear attacks in Japan. Wow. Now, that's the kind of thing that usually only gets issued when there's a danger of, like, a terrorist attack. Pirates off the coast. Yeah, pirates off the coast. But bears are enough of a threat in Japan this year that they're like, listen, you might want to think twice about traveling. The U.S. Alert warned about attacks near populated zones, noting that a park adjacent to its consulate in the city of Sapporo was closed for two weeks following a bear sighting. So just the sighting of the. Just a sighting? Just the sighting was enough that they said, shut it down. I think they were all drunk on Sapporo beer. Maybe. They're not taking any risks, though. It's amazing how people are learning at this very moment. The only things I know about Japan are pop culture or booze related. Yeah. Like if it washed onto our shores, I'm aware of it. But other than that, no idea. Now, like I said before, these Asiatic black bears can weigh almost 300 pounds. And experts think that climate change is to blame here or partially to blame. Climate change has reduced the harvest of bears' natural foods, such as acorns and beech nuts. seeking them to aggressively seek sustenance from other sources, including grocery stores and, I guess, mushrooms. It sounds like they're not even asking for a lot. Acorns? Squirrels live off acorns. You're telling me a 300-pound bear is like, oh, I'm full. This is fine. I can live off acorns. Ed, how much do you know about black bears? Nothing. They do eat. an awful lot of nuts. Nuts and berries sustain bears to a wild extent. They do obviously eat meat as well, but they're not. Okay, we should be working on a federally funded project then to make sure we have a bear stash, like a bear-ready stash of acorns at all times. So when this shit comes to our shores... We can be like, we can leave a trail of acorns into a. Can you imagine the military airdropping acorns over like Vermont or something? There's like a shortage. There's just flying giant planes over dropping acorns to feed the bears. No, don't lead... No, if you're leading them somewhere, don't lead them to New England. Lead them to Nevada where we're comfortable dropping bombs. And then... Take care of it. Well, these aren't bombs. These are acorns, Ed. They won't hurt a soul. No, no, I'm talking about acorns lead them to the part that we'll get emails about where the bears die. I see. Straight off a cliff into the desert. Just having a bit of fun here. Although the lemmings thing was all bullshit, right? From that Disney documentary. They like put them on a lazy Susan and shot it. Something like, I mean, that's the, that's the rumor. I've never actually done research into that urban legend, but yes, supposedly I would imagine the, if it was faked for the, the magical world of Disney documentary or whatever they, whatever it was supposedly faked for, the belief that lemmings follow the, each other off of cliffs, I assume would have existed prior to the documentary. And then they decided to show. People what that makes sure they get that shot. Yeah. I don't, I would be surprised if they invented it whole cloth. Someone would be kind of crazy. If they invented that whole cloth for the documentary, somebody had a reason to hate lemmings. Sure. They were like, sure. They were like, you know what I think lemmings do? Fall off cliffs by the dozens. Any way we can make that happen? Yeah. Mr. Disney demands it. Shit, dude. He hated Lemmings, maybe. Yeah, bears. I don't really want them all blown up, but it was a fun thing to talk about. So moving on. So Japan, at this point in the story, is still in peril, right? Yes. This leads us to a quote that you never want to hear. There are a lot more bears coming, said Shiroki Mutsunari, 40. You know that's like a fucking Japanese guy who has been running for two days straight, and he collapses into the arms of some embassy worker or at a military base. And they're like, what is he trying to do? He's like, he can't fucking breathe. And then he's like, you know what I mean? They're like, what is this guy's deal? And his last words are like, the bears are coming. There are a lot more bears coming. And you're like, what does he mean? And then, and then you hear a distant rumble. Yeah. Acorns all fucking rolling down the road. There are a lot more bears coming, said Shiroki Mitsunari, a local official overseeing efforts to deter bears in the picturesque Japanese mountain village of Shirakawa located. Overseeing it now? That was always his job. Uh, That's a good question. It doesn't say if this was always his job. He seems like he knows a lot. But if it is his job, he's definitely fired. He did nothing to deter them from murdering people. Ed, they're doing all they fucking can. So one thing that I didn't pull the specifics of, but one of the reasons that this is becoming an issue besides climate change, cutting back on the food sources of these bears, is that there are very specific laws about who can hunt and kill bears in Japan? I think there's like that here a little bit too. I think bears aren't like everyone can just do a thing. Yeah, you can't use regular, like your average person with a firearm, and I don't even know what the laws about owning firearms in Japan are, but the average person with a firearm cannot kill a bear. You have to be basically like a licensed bear hunter. And one of the other issues here is, that I don't think any of these articles get to specifically, is that the population of licensed bear hunters in Japan is growing old and dying. It's not something that the young are eager to make their career with. No, they have one Van Helsing that has to come out of retirement and throw a duster back on. Yeah, so not only is the population of bears growing and their food is growing short, but the men, I think mostly men, who are trained to deal with this specific problem are dying not from bear attacks, but from old age. And so there aren't people replacing them, and that's becoming an issue. Well, they died thinking, you know, we succeeded. We've kept the bears at bay. I can now quietly and honorably go to my deathbed. Ten minutes later, it was like, he's gone. Their last bear hunter is gone. We've got to get down there. They have one bureaucratic guy who has a job. To keep us out, but he can't stop us. Here are some of Shiroki Mitsunari's attempts here. In addition to honey-laced traps, which sounds like what I would make up. If all you knew about bears was Winnie the Pooh. If someone was like, you're in charge of trapping the bears, I'd be like, where can we get honey? In addition to honey-laced traps, authorities in Shirokawa have also chopped down fruit trees that might draw the hungry creatures. and issued warnings to visitors to walk in groups, wear bear bells, and avoid certain areas. What's a bear bell? Bear bells are exactly what it sounds like. They're like just bells that you wear around your wrists or ankles so that you make noise and scare off bears as you're traveling. I'm not a bear expert, but it kind of feels more like a device where when the bear drags you away, they can hear in what direction you've been taken. I mean, they can also just follow the screams. No. The official definition here is a bear bell is a small bell, often with a magnetic silencer, attached to a backpack or clothing to warn animals of your presence in bear country. While they can be used to alert wildlife, many experts say that periodic loud talking, clapping, or shouting is more effective than the constant jingle of a bell for alerting bears. So, Ed. My mom does that when she goes outside. She has to go to another structure on the property. She's always like, bloop, bloop, making crazy noises and clapping. Wait, really? Yeah, as long as I've known her. At your house? I mean, there's shit out here, man. I don't know. I don't know what happened in her life. I don't know what raccoon jumped at her once. Maybe is that why she trained you to be a loud talker? Because I feel like if you and I, if this is true, you and I could hike around Japan no problem. Oh, yeah. The bears would hear us coming from miles away. Yeah, man. So now we move to a quote from Cornelia Lee, a 25-year-old e-commerce industry worker from Shanghai. It's about time we heard from her, honestly. And Cornelia tells us, when we were preparing for our trip, we saw on social media that there were a lot of Japanese news reports of bear sightings. We were a little worried, she said, after affixing a bear bell to her four-year-old daughter's rucksack. Her family opted to book hotels in cities rather than rural areas due to the bear risk, she said. Although we've learned, I mean, they're common. This one bear walked straight into a grocery store, what, in Tokyo, I think it said. So good luck. It doesn't give a shit, man. It doesn't even know. It doesn't even know where it is. It just knows it wants to It just knows it needs to be seen. In Hida City, an hour's drive from Shurikawa, authorities are testing drones to stop bears ransacking apple and peach orchards. The drones are equipped with loudspeakers emitting the sounds of barking hunting dogs and have, get this, firecrackers attached to them for an extra scare factor. Wow. So they're using, this is crazy that, I guess when you live in a country where guns are maybe not plentiful and whatever, you have to be like, we're breaking out the big guns, no pun intended. We're going to bang two pans together. Well, what this called to mind for me is I believe we learned in our episode on fireworks disasters that when gunpowder was invented in China... China. The Chinese did it. The Chinese did it, but... They one of the first things they used like the early version of those black cat poppers for was to like scare off the demons in the forest. So if you squint, there's kind of a historical connection here of using fireworks to scare off because let's face it, the demons they were scaring off in the forest, while they may have believed that they were actual demons, probably were just bears, just bears, just bears. Yeah. And then America, with its right to bear arms, decided to take it one step forward and be like, what if the demons just went away forever? We got a solution. We, quote, we needed a rapid response measure, said Naofumi Yoshikawa, an official at Gifu Prefecture's Environmental Affairs Department overseeing the trial of the drones with firecrackers and loudspeakers. It was crazy. Somebody got laid. that night because they came home and were like, guess who's on the bear SWAT team. They only chose the best. Hey, you know what I'd like to suggest? If loud talking can get these bears out of there, I think scared all the time needs to contract with the Japanese government and forget these dog calls. I want our podcast playing 24 hours a day, seven days a week from drones to over the woods, scaring these bears off. We got to get one, two new followers from that, right? I think so. But you know what? We don't even need followers because, let's be real, not to get political, but I'm pretty sure there are some large companies all over the world that are mostly subsidized by government contracts. So what I'm thinking is, scared all the time is getting on that government. Dole Yeah, dude, we got to get on that. For a simple $ 5 million a year, we will solve your bear problem by screaming about elevator accidents. Right to their bear faces. Yeah. We don't give a shit. We'll talk about bear attacks to their faces. Not really, like send us on a drone. We'll be here safe. Play Eaten Alive, our episode Eaten Alive to bears. Bears would probably love it. They'd be like, hell yeah, that's us. They got us. They nailed our whole vibe. In addition to all of this, research group Fukuzawa Labs created a, quote, bear encounter AI prediction map, which charts bear sightings and attacks and forecasts which areas are most likely to have the aggressive beasts. Yeah, the places that always had them, pal. Pretty much, pretty much. But we can put this link in the show notes if you're in Japan. If you're listening to this show and you are in the woods in Japan and getting very, very nervous right about now, you can follow the link and check and see how much danger you are really in. Totally. The situation has gotten so bad in the country's rugged north that Japan this month dispatched the army. to help authorities cull the bears. The operation began in the town of Kizuno, where, quote, the townspeople feel the danger every day, Kizuno Mayor Shinji Sasamoto said after meeting 15 or so soldiers who rolled into town in an army truck and several jeeps equipped with body armor and large maps. Yo, it's gotta be sick to live somewhere where the army shows up to your town and you're pumped. Yeah, man. It's very rare that happens anywhere in the world. I remember when the National Guard rolled into L.A. earlier this year, and that was never exciting. But if they were like, we're here to stop the bears, I might greet them with cheers. That's what I'm saying, dude. Sasamoto said it has affected how people live their lives, forcing them to stop going out or cancel events. By it, he means the bears, not the arrival of the military. Yeah. The troops will help transport, set, and inspect the box traps used to capture the bears. How big are these boxes? Gotta be bear size. When I think of box traps, I think like possums. No, they just have big ones. Big ones. It's like the one you stick that fucking lightning stick into in Jurassic Park. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, I know what you mean. So the troops will help transport, set, and inspect the box traps, but the actual culling... will be by the trained hunters with what the article calls weapons more suited to that purpose. So I guess they mean guns or possibly... Yeah, but what are the weapons that they're ignoring or negating? Grenades, rocket launchers. Yeah. It was like, could everyone please stop sending your World War II era grenades at throwing them at the bears? We have people coming with weapons more suitable to this. Flamethrowers. Situation. Please put down your flamethrower from the Pacific Theater. We have people coming. After Kizuna, a town of around 30,000 people known for its hot, or sorry, for the accent. People are known for being hot. Hell yeah, dude. Weird place there. After Kizuno, a town of around 30,000 people known for its hot springs, dramatic landscapes, and a variety of sweet apples. Well, there's your problem. Yeah. Tomb. Variety is the spice of life. They just found out about this and they want all these beautiful sweet apples. That's literally what bears eat. I mean, apples, fruits, a variety of sweet apples is better than honey if you're trying to. You said peach earlier and peach is a fucking. delicious fruit here in the States. I imagine just as delicious, and if not more so delicious, in Japan. This is unrelated and half-remembered, so listener, fact-check me. But I did just see an article the other day that was about monkeys, not bears, that studied essentially how... So monkeys are eating fruits all day, and so some intelligent person said, hey, A lot of that fruit is probably fermented. I wonder what humid equivalent of alcohol these monkeys are ingesting every day. And it came out to like three drinks a day or something, they think, that whatever particular species this was. You think monkeys are just drunk? It seems like perhaps. They're just drunk all the time. It seems like they might be. Maybe. You'd think these bears might be too, you know, with all the. I know the only animal I know that's confirmed drunk is when that... An elephant a couple years ago went into that town and drank all the beer or whatever. Yeah. I knew that much to be. You got to figure any wild animal that eats fruits on a daily basis is ingesting a lot of fermented fruit. Exactly. We can't just say all animals are drunk. It's a ridiculous statement. But many of them are. I guess a lot are, yeah. So after the soldiers destroy these apples, I assume, and chase off the bears in Kizuna. Okay, I take it back. Everyone was happy for their arrival, except for the apple farmer who's like, are you kidding me? After they do that, the soldiers will head for the cities of Odate and Kitakita under an agreement due to last until the end of the month. Now, we've got the mayors of these towns involved. We've got the Japanese army involved. We've got the American consulate issuing warnings. We've got Cornelia from Shanghai has given us warnings. The people we haven't checked in with that I'm sure all the listeners are wondering waiting with bated breath to hear from, are insurance companies. And it turns out, not to let a crisis go to waste, insurance companies have responded to this crisis by releasing new products that cover bear attacks. I'm reading here, quoting from Insurance Journal, a real periodical, quote, hardly a day goes by in Japan without news of another bear attack. But a problem that's worrying local residents, tourists, and farmers and hampering leisure-related businesses is presenting an opportunity for insurers. Tokyo Marine and Michido Fire Insurance Company announced Friday it will offer an insurance product that compensates businesses that suffer a bear intrusion. The policy applies to hotel and leisure facility operators and can cover lost profits and the cost of bolstering safety measures. So nothing here about grocery store owners who seem like they're really suffering the brunt of the bear intrusions. People aren't coming for your luggage. They're coming for your fruit. Not people. By people, I mean bears. Maybe I missed something here, but I don't think I read about a single bear busting into a hotel. A unit of another insurance company, MS & AD Insurance Group Holdings, Inc., offers support for municipal governments to help carry out emergency bear hunt operations, with costs starting at 300,000 yen or around $ 1, 900 American. Hong Kong-based Blue Cross Asia Pacific Insurance Limited has also added extra coverage for bear attacks to its travel insurance, citing climate change and habitat shifts leading to an increased risk of wild bear encounters in destinations including Japan. insured travelers who suffer an attack may be eligible to receive an extra $ 3, 000 in HK or $ 385 American cash allowance. I don't know if that is helping me get there. You know what I mean? I don't know if it's like, well, I wasn't going to go, but now that I know I can take out insurance... I'll go, I would just be like, the fact that they have included it in the insurance tells me maybe I should wait until the bear. Situation has been more under control. I know. $ 385 in case of bear attack. Yeah, it doesn't, I'm not weighing that. Now, am I super concerned that I'm going to be attacked by a bear? Should I go to Japan? Not really. This is a large. Sounds like you should be. Well, it's a large number of attacks, but statistically, you know, I'm sure it's still less than, you know, I don't. Know the size of Japan. I have never claimed to know the size of Japan. But I did Google when we first started this episode when you said the first thing about bear attacks. I said, how many bear attacks happened in America last year? Kind of sounded like around the same. Not as many fatalities. Dude. And so I'm like, well, America, I feel like you fit a bunch of Japans in America. So they're getting a lot of bear attacks. Well, you could fit a bunch of Japans in America, but it's actually pretty big. I googled the size of Japan, and what I'm being told here is that it is 145,937 square miles, making it slightly smaller than California or slightly larger than Germany. I mean, ironically, California, state flag has a bear on it. And there is, that's true, there is a map here that I'm seeing of Japan overlaid on top of the United States. And yeah, it's a little bit bigger than Japan. California. California. Yes. Sorry. Japan is a little bit bigger than California. So bigger. I guess what I said doesn't make any sense because if anything, we should have less bear taxes. There's more room to give them space where in Japan they're right there. Yeah. What are they going to do? Swim away? No. I don't think bears, they go in the water, but I don't know if they're strong swimmers. Polar bears can swim. Polar bears can swim. Polar bears are fucking ferocious. Black bear swimming. They are often. They're strong and avid swimmers, so I was wrong. I like the second part, avid. They swim for recreation, too. They just love it. They do. They're often seen swimming across lakes, rivers, and even backyard swimming pools, which I should know because famously last year there was a bear or maybe a couple of bears that were in swimming pools in Pasadena. All right, well. climate change i guess it's they gotta get in the water. Here's another interesting animal fact as we come to the end of this episode uh pasadena has a non-native population of uh green parrots or i believe they're technically. Uh so does where i am right now because of a shipwreck many years ago they all like flew onto land they've been a problem a nuisance. Well hold on time out do you know for is the shipwreck a rumor because there's lots of rumors about how the parrots probably yeah. Yeah Probably a rumor. I'm saying about here where I am in Connecticut. I'm shocked that the parrots are in Connecticut. I remember learning that last time I was at your parents' house. Yeah, we lose power, like, once a year because they build their gigantic nests on top of, like, transformers on, like, the poles because they stay warm because of the, like, electricity homing through them. And then, like, it gets too hot and then they, like, cause fires. Yeah. Well, I don't know if it's the same species in Connecticut that's in Pasadena. They're green parrots, or I was going to say, I think they're technically like red-headed parrots because they do have a red flash of red on their head. But anyway. They end up red-headed here because they keep sleeping on transformers that turn into fire. Fire is pretty famously like red, yellow. What I learned that's interesting, I was reading this article that the populations of these parrots are being studied in Pasadena because they are actually thriving better here than they are in their native Mexican territories where they are actually on the decline. And they're trying to figure out like a, how I. Think there's an argument to be made that we are not me, right? The second, cause I'm in Connecticut, but we, you are sitting in Mexico. So technically they just could have, it's still. Well, it's, how is it that it's a very, it's a very similar, uh, climate and environment, but they're studying to try to figure out, you know, they're, they're in, I believe more rural areas in Mexico and in, and in LA, uh, you know, they started in Pasadena, but they've now branched out. They're fully all through LA. I remember the first time I heard them was when I was living in West Hollywood and they nested one spring in the tree behind my apartment. And it was so loud that by the end of that season who, I don't know who in the, uh, nearby apartments, like which building owned the tree, but they cut the tree down because somebody must've been complaining, you know, that, there's loud parrots. I was like, what is that? And that's how I learned there were parrots. And now in Pasadena, I see them all the time. They're beautiful, but they are very loud. Anyway, I thought that was interesting. The extent that human beings will go through, this story, other episodes we've done, has informed us. The extent human beings would go through to not have anything change or be different. The fact that we've paved over... everything to make like right angles and comfortable things and blah, blah, blah, including like, get this bird has been here for 10 billion years out of here. Get it out of here right now. Cut that tree down. It is so funny to me. I mean, look, I, I, obviously I think there are, there are places that should be protected from building and, and whatever. But when you hear about people complaining about like wind turbines for electricity or whatever, or I just went through an issue with a neighbor who is blocking me from receiving fiber optic internet cables because it would cross over their property. I'm like, look around you. Do you not realize that the roads weren't always here or that, you know, the infrastructure that you rely on every day, the telephone pole that brings internet into your house wasn't always there? Like, sure. Sure. Maybe we should have decided to put those underground instead of on poles over everything. But yeah, there's a lot of like non-native infrastructure and buildings and things everywhere. So a wind turbine is not going to hurt you and neither will the birds. Although maybe the wind turbines will hurt the birds. I think people people run on that sentiment now. So, yeah, I think it does. Maybe. I don't know. But anyway, guys, that brings us to the end of this new Fear Unlocked, which really truly was a new Fear Unlocked, which is running into a wild bear in a grocery store in Japan. I would not know what to do. And I feel like what we're doing, we're shortchanging the people at home, too, not only with these backgrounds. But, I mean, I just saw an article that maybe you didn't see from just a few weeks ago where the bears are getting after it in Canada as well. Like mauling busloads of kids. I think people sign up to listen about mauling busloads of kids. I'm sorry we're not giving you that this episode. But if you Google. Well. Don't Google mauling busloads of kids. But if you Google like Canadian bear attacks I think that nobody's safe up there right now. Either okay well maybe we'll double down on this and I mean yeah mauling busloads of kids is a hell of a title. To get people to sign up I added the S in busloads it might have just been one busload or one kid on one bus no I think I think If a bear gets in the bus, it's not going to be a one-person situation. Even if the bear just wants to get out, it's so constrained or confined, confined, I guess, confined space. All right. Well, look, you've brought this up, Ed. You've brought this upon us. Oh, shit. Did you look it up? I looked it up, and now the listeners are getting a bonus New Fear Unlocked mini-episode. And mostly so that we can call this episode mauled bus full of kids or whatever. The headline here, new details revealed about grizzly bear attack that left three students and one teacher injured. Emergency officials previously said two victims were critically injured and the other two seriously hurt. Was it on a bus? This is from People Magazine, published November 21st, 2025. And we are learning right now, new details are being revealed about the grizzly bear attack involving a group of teachers and students in Canada. At 1.46 p.m. local time on Thursday, November 20th, the B.C. Emergency Health Services received a call about an animal attack on a trail near Highway 20 in Bella Coola on British Columbia's central coast. So there's just no buses? Hold on. I'm getting to that. Let's see. I thought it was hundreds of kids. I have a lot of this wrong. The victims were part of a school group when students and teachers having lunch along a trail near the river when a grizzly bear emerged from the forest and attacked. Officials added in an update, multiple teachers physically intervened using bear spray and a bear banger to drive the bear away. Authorities added that all the victims were with medical professionals at this time and that efforts to capture the bear remain ongoing. So, I mean, I guess these people probably did get on and off a bus, but the way that you pitched this story to me, Ed, it sounded like the bear got on the bus and went wild. That's what I pictured when I probably just read a headline that said, like, school children. And I was like, oh, it's on the bus. This is why I hope no one ever uses this show as a citation in anything. No, I'm sure that people probably cite, like, guys who thought they heard something one time. Probably. Probably. Yeah, it's probably. You know what I mean? Just as long as you say it, as long as you're open about it. Yeah. Be like, according to a guy who thought he saw something one time, X, Y, Z. Just add that, and then you put that in the footnotes. We love it in the research. We love it in the research. Well, guys, I hope you enjoyed this episode. We'll have another new Fear Unlocked for you coming up soon. I think the first half of December, we've got two, and then we've got two regular episodes at the end of December. I know it's a little bit unusual. We usually do every other week, but we had to bounce stuff around for ads and whatnot. It became a whole thing. But there's more new Fear Unlocked just around the corner. There's more Scared all the time just around the corner. And hopefully for you, this is the beginning of a restful and relaxing December where you will hear our voices constantly in your ears. But until next time, I'm Chris Colari. And I'm Ed Vecola. And if the Japanese government's listening and you want our voices in bare ears, that's a hard thing to say. Call us. We'll gladly take money to have you blasted into the woods and keep them away. ScareItAllTheTimePodcast at gmail.com. Yeah. Send us. We're available. We're available to fix your crisis. We love you guys. Signing off until next time. This is New Fear Unlocked, part of ScareItAllTheTime, part of Astonishing Legends Network. Yeah. Bye-bye. The theme song may say this show has no name, but as you know, it actually. Has a name. The thing you guys always say That's the name The name is New Fear Unlocked But now it's over So you can turn it off There's nothing more after this Thanks for coming