Shocking footage captured the moment a daring nature enthusiast evicted a bear from under a home by shooting the bruin multiple times with a paintball gun.
Toogee Sielsch, an environmentalist in South Lake Tahoe, California, shared a clip of himself this week descending into a crawl space in an outlandish – and successful – attempt to move the bear from under an occupied home.
The video opens with Sielsch hunched by an opening of the crawlspace, pointing his paintball gun into the darkness in preparation.
‘Don’t even THINK about doing what I did there unless you have YEARS of training and experience,’ he warned.
Toogee Sielsch shared daring footage this week of himself descending into a bear-inhabited crawlspace, armed only with a paintball gun
The environmentalist said he evicted the bear because it was under an occupied home, although he used a braver strategy than most
The nature enthusiast was seen moving into the dark crawlspace, before several shots could be heard ringing out as he peppered the bear with paintball shells
The nature lover, who frequently shares clips of his encounters with animals around Lake Tahoe, in particular bears, then withdrew his gun as he took a brave step inside.
After crawling on all fours into the cramped space, several paintball shots can be heard underneath the home, with only the opening visible in the clip.
As Sielsch remained inside with the bear, a last shot could be heard before the beast came bounding out of the home.
Another person outside the home exclaimed, ‘He’s a big bear, oh my goodness’, while Sielsch called the bear a ‘good boy’ as it scurried away.
‘Oh yeah he’s 500 pounds easy,’ Sielsch added.
Although some may not like to see the bear being shot by a paintball gun, the environmentalist insisted in an Instagram post that the huge animal would not have been hurt.
‘I promise he’s just fine,’ he said. ‘And will surely find another safer spot over winter.’
As a final shot was fired, the bear came racing out of the crawlspace, while a witness exclaimed: ‘He’s a big bear, oh my goodness’
Sielsch remarked that the bear must weigh ‘500 pounds easy’ as it came storming out of the space
He said that the encounter left him with ‘good news, and tough love news’ – with the good news that he finally saw the bear, branded B33, again for the first time since November.
But while he loves the giant bruins, Sielsch said he had no choice but to kick the creature out of its home.
‘I had to evict him from under an occupies house that he ripped into – Boo!’ he said.
While many may have been way ahead of him, Sielsch also warned viewers not to copy him by entering a confined space with a bear.
‘Don’t even THINK about doing what I did there unless you have YEARS of training and experience!’
Toogee Sielsch (pictured) frequently shares clips of his encounters with nature – particularly bears – around Lake Tahoe in California
Sielsch revealed that he has a long track record of following B33, which he named after an earlier encounter where he found it had a collar on its neck after it was tagged.
He told Fox News that the bear weighed only around 150 pounds at the time, before he found it a year later weighing 400 pounds – still with the tag around its neck.
The pain the animal was in led him to call wildlife officials and they were able to tranquilize the bear and remove it, a move that may have saved its life.
He said he performs around 30 bear evictions a year, although his aggressive approach to removing B33 may be down to the years the two have known each other.