Wildlife
The village I am at right now is in the wilderness. I see deer fairly regularly - one afternoon, there were 7 or 8 deer walking along. A few days before that, I saw a deer as I was eating dinner on one of the porches. I pointed it out to the folks I was eating with, and they were unimpressed. They had all been here for one year or more, so seeing a deer is not an event.
I did see a baby black bear the other day. I have not seen the mama bear. The baby walked off the porch of the dining hall, ambled along the back of the lodge, and then disappeared. It is not a good sign that they are coming into the village - it means they are hungry and the food in the wilderness has not been enough. It is bad for the village and for them that they are here; they can do a lot of damage to the village, and they should not be comfortable around humans for their own safety. There is not much we can do, besides keeping everything rewarding (anything with food on it) away from the bears’ reach until they go into hibernation.
That’s my wilderness experience right now; it is very different from the city, and very different from any place I’ve ever lived (always in cities; the closest to wildlife was a house that had mice). I’ll get to see the change from summer to fall to early winter, both in the environment and in the community here.