In May 2001 in southern Hokkaido, a 53-year-old man was killed and buried by a bear. In the spring and summer they load up on new shoots, buds, flowers, bulbs and tubers. Sometimes bear cubs were caught and nursed by women. [Ibid], December 10 of the Sankebetsu Brown Bear Incident, Early in the morning on December 10, Saito- Ishigoro- and Miyoke Yasutaro- left the village on their respective errands. Children were escorted to schools. So nothing to compare with the rich vocabulary of the English or French languages on this topic.The professional world makes its life tough as well. Unable to return home, Yasutaro- stayed in Onishika, now Obiracho-. Most were caught in Tohuku in northern Japan and the Nagano-Niigata regions. A female bear and her cubs were caught. This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been authorized by the copyright owner. The Ainu had great reverence for bears, Bears were providers of food, fur and bone for tools. There are healthy numbers of the main subspecies that lives mostly in mountainous areas of central and northern Honshu but the other six---in Kyushu, Shikoku, eastern and western Chugoko, the Kii Penninsual of Wakayama Prefecture, on the Himokita Peninsula in Aomori Prefecture---have been designated as endangered. In Kyoto, one bear cut off electricity to 850 houses when he climbed a utility pole and was electrocuted. Yamamoto was certain that the bear was "Kesagake" or "the diagonal slash from the shoulder", which had previously been blamed for the mauling and deaths of three women but by now he had pawned his gun for money to buy alcohol, and refused Miyoke's request for aid. In Iwate Prefecture three people were attacked in three towns, and one person was seriously injured. ", Morikawa said the bear was about 1.4 to 1.5 meters long. "In autumn 2007, acorns were plentiful and bears were healthy and gave birth to many cubs," Maita said. According to contemporary descriptions the scene resembled a slaughterhouse, with blood puddled on the farmhouse floor. Given that Kesagake had again been wounded, that snowstorms appeared imminent and since fresh snow could cover any tracks, it was decided that this was the most critical opportunity to hunt down and kill the bear. In the Akita Prefecture, bears lacking the mark were known by matagi huntsmen as minaguro (all black) or munaguro (black chested), and were also considered messengers of yama no kami. They can outrun a person on open ground and have been observed swimming 300 meters in Japan. The same month a pair of bears attacked three different people in separate incidents in Toyama. Hunters later shot and killed all six escaped bears. Asian black bears are known for having short tempers. Black bears sometimes badly damage timber trees, with reports of a single bear scrapping the bark off 40 trees in a single night. Newspaper reports of such incidents were something else I probably ought not to … Bears are popping up more and more in residential areas. The last nationwide survey, conducted in 1991, put the number of bears at between 8,400 and 12,600, but some conservationists believe the total was closer to 15,000. The previous year an abundant crop prompted a rise in the number of bear cubs, leaving adults with more young mouths to feed. The team dropped everything and scattered, but the bear had singled out one of the graduate students who had fallen through the snow crust while trying to escape. Similar beliefs were held in Nagano, where the completely black bears were termed nekoguma or cat-bear. It was decided that the brown bear would most probably try to retrieve the bodies of those it had killed but there were no remains in the Miyoke family house. Amid the general confusion and risk of crossfire, the bear escaped into the night. When they become sufficiently fattened up they seek a cozy den in a cave, rock shelter, partially rotted log or the hollow of an old tree. A number of bears are killed each year in road traffic collisions. The villagers believed that once the bear had a taste for human flesh, its return to the settlement was assured. The Yomiuri Shimbun reported: “Some experts have suggested changes in forests and farmland are also behind the spate of bear encounters. Sports hunters prize the black bear for the bile from its gall bladder, which is used in traditional Chinese medicine. In 2005 there were plentiful food supplies in the mountains and relatively few bears caused mischief in places with large human populations. In the process, the trip sparks off a series of adventures and mishaps for the boys. MORE INFORMATION. Black bears are found throughout Honshu and Shikoku. A group of men was formed to kill the bear, including Miyoke and Saito-. Of these 4,251 were killed at the time or destroyed later. Tadashi Kawagoe, 70, is chief of a division of the Yamagata prefectural hunters association that is responsible for eliminating harmful animals. Yamamoto Heikichi and "Kesagake" Meanwhile, Saito- Ishigoro-, unaware of the family's fate, filed a report with authorities and the district police before returning to Tomakomai and lodging at a local hotel there. In June 2004, a hiker in Nikko National Park was seriously injured in an attack by a black bear. Hiromasa Takeda and Takahiro Komazaki wrote in the Yomiuri Shimbun, “In October 2010, a black bear appeared in a park in a busy district of Uozu, Toyama Prefecture, about 100 meters from JR Uozu Station. After being released 75 percent of the bears avoided residential areas. By some estimates there are around 3,000 brown bears in Japan, all of them in Hokkaido. [Source: Wikipedia], Yamamoto was familiar with Kesagake's behaviour and successfully tracked him down. These plots are often close to residential areas and provide bears with food with cover from prying eyes.” [Source: Yomiuri Shimbun, October 24, 2010]. By 2009, about 40 bear-related problems were being reported a month. Conservationists warned today that Japan's population of Asiatic black bears faces extinction following a record number of killings of bears that strayed into towns and villages in search of food. In recent years bears have increased in numbers, expanded their range and lost their fear of people and have increasingly come in contact with them. Bear biology, hunting techniques, cabin depredations and avoidance thereof, and other aspects of bear pursuits are detailed. He then retired and constructed the bear harm cenotaph, a shrine where people can pray for the dead villagers. In the autumn they feast on acorns, chestnuts and beechnuts as well as berries if they can find them. In the 2000s, black bears began terrorizing the forest-surrounded town of Iwaizumchi in Iwate Prefecture. Their diet changes with season. There are two species of bear found in Japan: the Asiatic black bear and Ezo brown bear. The bear was killed and her spirit was sent to the gods in a special ceremony. "With fewer hunters around, bears are no longer afraid to approach people. Today, watered-down versions of the festivals are sometimes performed for tourists. The bear was taken from the bear house and killed with arrows and by strangling it between logs. "And then the scorching weather in summer made the acorns fall from the trees before they had grown to full size." Acorns are the primary food source for black bears in Japan. Brown bears in Hokkaido usually hibernate from mid-December to late March. After the introduction of Buddhism in Japan, which prohibited the killing of animals, the Japanese compromised by devising different strategies in hunting bears. Two others were seriously injured. They were disappointed, having failed to kill the bear, but the captain thought he had heard some response from it. Suga motivated the men by cheering from the village outside. ", An Asiatic black bear. Forests in mountainous areas were once maintained by forestry workers, but this work has been increasingly neglected in recent years as people drift away from these areas. Therefore, a new plan was proposed: to attempt to lure out the brown bear with the corpse of a victim. But if a bear is agitated, taking more defensive measures could be required. By Stuart Winter . The sniper team consisted of six members, which now included Yamamoto Heikichi waited, but the bear stopped and appeared to check the inside of the house then returned to the forest. The guardsmen divided into two groups: one, consisting of ten men, stood guard at the door while the other group went to the back of the house. When he did not return his family sent a search party out for him and found him dead. Within the day, the strategy was executed. Bears that become caught in traps are harassed for a time by barking dogs and then released back to the wild, hopefully with a lesson learned.” [Ibid]. Some beds have been reported as high as 65 feet (20 meters) in the tree, while others are only centimeters off the ground.”, Asiatic Black Bears, See Separate Article Under Animals in Asian Topics. The bear had damaged at least eight houses, but so far no one could find it. They are closely related to brown bears found in Siberia and distantly related to grizzly bears in North America. At the Ueno Zoo a bear has been artificially-induced to hibernate by replicating the conditions in the bear’s home territory. In the same area two men were seriously injured by bear as they walked along a plank path on Ozegahara marsh. Bears have been blamed for destroying apple and permission orchards. A 77-year-old woman and a 76-year-old woman suffered facial scratched. Sports hunters who at this time of the year would normally head to the mountains say there are not enough bears left in some areas to warrant an organised hunt. [Source: the book “Bears of the World” by Terry Domico]. In 2004 some footpaths were closed because of worries about bear attacks and elevated walkways were built to protect tourist in the future. [Ibid], In 2004, the year of a high number of bear attacks, people became very scared. They occasionally eat livestock and kill people. Jackie Earle Haley returns as Kelly Leak, the Bears' star player, as the team ventures to the other side of the world to face off against the best little league team in Japan. A necropsy was carried out on the bear during which parts of his victims were found in his stomach. Bears in Japan hibernate for around four months generally beginning in late November. They eat plant shoots and salmon and sometimes attack Yezo shika deer. Brown bears are threatened by loss of habitat to farming and logging and human control of salmon rivers. The Akita prefectural police found several bear tracks in the snow when they searched the site on suspicion of professional negligence resulting in death. "It means that bears and humans are physically closer than ever.". In two days, six people had lost their lives, one of them pregnant. About an hour later, it set upon a 67-year-old woman about 1.3 kilometers away from the scene of the earlier attacks. Yayo, hoping that some of the children still lived, forbade this. After the incident, only veterans of the Russo-Japanese War remained at their posts. According to a local fire station, three rescue workers arrived near the farm's entrance at about 10:30 a.m.. [Source: AP, April 20, 2012], The Yomiuri Shimbun reported: “Rescue workers witnessed a bear climbing over a concrete wall to escape from an open-air play area at the Hachimantai Bear Farm in Kazuno, Akita Prefecture, where two female employees were killed by brown bears, sources said. When struck by a poisoned arrow the bear ran 50 to 100 meters and collapsed as a result of the fast-acting poison. 1 History 1.1 Part I 1.1.1 Mountain Training Arc 2 Legacy 3 Appearance 4 Gallery 5 Trivia On the final day of the training camp, the bear encountered Takamura Mamoru and they engaged in a fight where the bear managed … After the bear had fled, the hunters scouted the area and discovered dried blood on the snow at the base of a Sakhalin fir tree. I have seen up to six or seven enza in a single oak grove...Asian black bears are also said to build “basking couches.” These elevated, oval-shaped beds constructed of twigs and branches probably allow the bears to conserve body hear by getting off the ground during wet and cold ls spells. When the bear reappeared on November 30, they shot it but failed to kill it. After killing the bear, the matagi would pray for the bear's soul. [Source: Yomiuri Shimbun, May 9, 1999], In October 2005, a zookeeper died after being mauled on his head and leg by a brown bear at the Fuji Safari Park in Shizuoka. [Source: Wikipedia], Later, Yayo, Miyoke Yasutaro-'s wife, was preparing a late meal while carrying her fourth son, Umekichi, on her back. Allowing fields to become fallow and overgrown and the bluring of the areas of the region that demarcated the forest and farms have also contributed to the problem. … Bear hunts in Japan are often termed kuma taiji, meaning "bear conquest". Carrying torches made of birch bark, they entered the house and beheld the results of the attack. This is about four times the number of grizzly bears found in the continental United States. They are particularly fond of persimmon and often raid crops in places where there is thick bush for them to hide and the population is made up primarily of relatively non-threatening elderly people. A short time later two women were out in the forest and presumably the same bear attacked them. A bear in Akita prefecture is believed responsible for the death of four people in three weeks. The surprise encounter panicked the family horse, but the bear fled after taking only harvested corn. That was when I sprayed the animal with a blast from my can of deterrent. Toshiaki Shiraishi, an official of Toyama Municipal Family Park Zoo, said, "Usually making a noise or saying 'hey' or something will make a bear run away." Japanese black bears roam forests from sea level to the subalpine zone high on mountainsides. In 2006, three people were killed by black bears and 136 were injured. Hunting of brown bears was banned in 1982. Bears can be dangerous in Hokkaido, where hikers may encounter them in the mountains. Meanwhile a search party comprising thirty men was organized to capture the brown bear and recover the remains of Mayu. "We killed too many bears that were thought to be harmful over the past year," Hideki Koumo, a member of a hunting association in Niigata prefecture told the Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper. Because they are no longer hunted brown bears don’t fear people like they used to. Without guns the Ainu killed bears used bamboo arrows poisoned with a preparation made from the roots of a small purple-flowered plant called are Aconitum yesoense . These bears are often seen on the Rusha River on the Shiretoko Peninsula in Hokkaido. Ussuri brown bears are occasionally preyed on by Siberian tigers, and constitute about 1% ... the small size and isolation of the western Ishikari subpopulation has warranted its listing as an endangered species in Japan’s Red Data Book. Only fairly recently have they been embraced by animal lovers and conservationists. But a mature bear captured in Nagaoka, Niigata Prefecture, on Oct. 10 weighed only 45 kilograms.” [Source: Yomiuri Shimbun, October 24, 2010], "This year, oak trees didn't grow enough buds due to unusually low temperatures in spring," an official of the Nagano prefectural government's wildlife problem section told the Yomiuri Shimbun. By some estimates this was 30 percent to 50 percent of the total bear population in Japan. "If you can't escape, squat down and curl up into a ball," Shiraishi said. In mountain regions, bears were hunted by driving them upland to a waiting hunter who would shoot it. The word taiji itself is often used in Japanese folklore to describe the slaying of monsters and demons. Directed by John Berry. In the Ainu Museum in Shiraoi, south of Sapporo, a cute cartoon bear in a red T-shirt adorns a sign advertising bear treats for ¥ 100. The bear, estimated to be 5 years old, was finally shot dead after it ran into a house. Two bears walk down the street in Shari town in Japan’s northern island of Hokkaido. Police said that two female employees in their 60s and 70s at the park near Kazuno City in Akita prefecture were believed to have been feeding the bears from outside the concrete fence before they escaped. Takayoshi, Haruyoshi's son, in 1980---after an eight-year chase---hunted down a 500 kg brown bear who was nicknamed the north sea Taro. In Hyogo, a bear attacked an 82-year-old woman as she gathered flowers. But then I noticed a tuft of white hair on its chest and realized that it was a bear," said Hisako Morikawa, 71, the first of the bear's victims, who was bitten on the knee as she cut the grass in the garden of her home. “In Karuizawamachi, Nagano Prefecture, a nonprofit organization called Picchio tries to teach bears of the risks of approaching populated areas, without killing them. In 1996, 1,725 bears regarded as pests were shot. In Japan, it is also known as tsukinowaguma which means moon circle bear. One person was killed and almost a 100 were injured, almost 10 times the usual number. When they inspected the site based on a report that bears had escaped, they saw a bear climbing over the wall. The plan was widely condemned, especially by the O-ta, Saito-, and Miyoke families but it was decided that, for the future of the village, it was the best plan. Experts say a meagre supply of acorns and other nuts last autumn drove an unusually large number of Japan's black bears into populated areas to forage for food. A study of bears in Tochigi prefecture found that bears there lived mainly on persimmons and cherries from village orchards rather than nuts found in the mountains. [Ibid], Rikizo- and Hisano, first son and daughter of the same relatives, were injured, but lived. Any animal is most dangerous when it loses it's fear of people. On December 9, 1915, at 10:30 a.m., the giant brown bear turned up at the home of the O-ta family. The privately owned park owns 32 other bears. When they become sufficiently fattened up they seek a cozy den in a cave, rock shelter, partially rotted log or the hollow of an old tree. Ezo brown bears live in Hokkaido. The number of black bears in western Honshu has been dramatically reduced by the prevalence of introduced cedars and cypresses, which produce no acorns for the bears to eat. A couple days before in Sharicho, Hokkaido, two brown bears gave local residents a scare when they appeared in a central district of town.” Bear sightings are being reported almost every day between April and September.