'Are you after my mice?': B.C. pilot films encounter with young bobcat
'Are you after my mice? Very nice!' said Jan Nademlejnsky in a YouTube video
A YouTube video featuring playful conversation with a bobcat has earned Kamloops, B.C., pilot Jan Nademlejnsky some surprising fame on social media.
"Hey, what's up?" Nademlejnsky said while chirping and cooing to the animal, which stared at the camera while staying close to the door of a wooden storage house.
"Are you after my mice? Very nice!"
The 92-second clip, which he said was filmed last Friday at his plane hangar at Kamloops Airport, has been viewed more than 9,000 times since it was published on Monday, and the number is still growing.
WATCH | Pilot Jan Nademlejnsky speaks softly to bobcat prowling near his hangar
Nademlejnsky says he once saw a bobcat from a distance at McArthur Island Park in Kamloops, but he has never seen one up close.
He initially thought it was a domestic cat, judging from the small paw prints on the snow.
"I was very glad because we have lots of mice and marmots, which create real havoc around the airport," Nademlejnsky told host Shelley Joyce on CBC's Daybreak Kamloops.
"At the same time, I couldn't believe that a domestic cat would be there."
'A small domestic cat, but fluffier'
Nademlejnsky says he was refuelling his aircraft and clearing up snow on the ground when he spotted the bobcat. He then guided the animal to the storage house in order to take a closer look.
"I was coming closer and it didn't run or anything — it was not scared," he said.
"[Then] I realized that must be a bobcat, because I saw the typical hair from its ears — it looks like a small domestic cat, but fluffier."
Nademlejnsky says he kneeled on his knees and used his cellphone to film the bobcat before guiding the animal to a gap between a fence and an airport building.
CBC News has reached out to the B.C. Conservation Officer Service for comment on Nademlejnsky's interaction with the animal and whether it is a bobcat or a lynx.
In the past, conservation officers said sightings of bobcats have been rare in the Thompson region.
Nademlejnsky came to Canada in 1979 from the former Czechoslovakia. As a self-taught pilot, he has shared hundreds of YouTube videos featuring him gliding and flying various aircraft.
He says he is glad to know his sweet talk with a bobcat has gotten so much traction on social media.
"There must be lots of cute stuff lovers around the world," he said.
While neither bobcats nor lynxes generally pose a risk to humans, wildlife experts have advised people to keep their distance and make noise when they encounter one.
If the animals are seen in urban areas, it is advised that pets be kept indoors, and sightings are reported to the B.C. Conservation Officer Service.
With files from Jason Peters and Daybreak Kamloops