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11 bear sightings reported in Nagano City

19 Comments

A one-meter-long male black bear was spotted 11 times in nine urban areas of Nagano City on Friday, police said.

According to police, the bear was first seen at about 5 a.m. near the Omotesando intersection which leads to Zenkoji. It then showed up in a car park, before moving to a street in downtown Nagano where it wandered in front of a hotel, Fuji TV reported.

At 6 a.m., the bear was spotted on the platform at JR Nagano Station, but no commuters were injured. It moved off to a riverbank where police and local hunters searched for it.

At 11 a.m., police found the footprints of a bear on the Susobana riverbank. The bear emerged from the bushes along the river at about 4 p.m. and was shot dead by a hunter.

However, police said it was possible that there was more than one bear in the area and asked residents to be careful.

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19 Comments
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First of all, the unfortunate bear that was killed a week ago today in Nagano, was shot about 200 meters from the School where I work. I rode past on my bike and saw the Hunters and Fire Brigade and Media circus, on my way home. It is a regular topic in this neighbourhood. Misunderstandings about bears remain supreme.

I would like to question the misinformation provided by the supposed expert on this thread. **

The population of Japanese bears has exploded over the past 15 years.

Japanese kill bears because it is the only way to deal with the problem. ** I would like to point readers to a different picture than the supposed expert on this thread is suggesting.

First of all there has most definately not been a bear population explosion, despite what some Hunters tend to suggest when they are given media time on Japanese TV.

The estimated Asiatic bear population in Japan ranges between 7460-15'000. In 2006 alone 4600 bears were shot either as nuisance kills or by hunters in the hunting season. That would have taken a huge proportion of the population out of those figures. Maybe up to half. <>http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2007/jan/08/japan.conservationandendangeredspecies Hunters that year complained their were no bears left in the mountains to hunt.

Bears populations do not explode like rats. It is possible for bears numbers to recover over time but they can not cope with massive population loss that has regularly been happening every two or three years in Japan.

Another bad year for the bears happened in 2009 if I remember right. over 2000 were killed that year. Bears are extinct from Kyushu and close to extinction in Shikoko and most of Southern Honshu.

There are vested interests in Japan between Medicine Manufactorors which produce and sell products from Bear Gall bladders and Bear Bile in Japan. These parts are worth more than their weight in Gold. Its serious business and Hunters are allowed to sell the parts and reap the b<>enifits of both their shootings in the hunting season and also when they are called in to shoot nuisance bears. <>http://www.trafficj.org/kuma/

You suggest, there are no alternatives but the lucrative shoot to kill policy. Actually there are some active projects in Japan working to reduce and prevent conflicts with bears. I have volunteered at a couple of these, one in Nagano precture which uses specially trained bear dogs to readucate the bears. The other in Shiretoko, dealing with brown bears.

There is still a general reluctance of Prefectural authorities to change their approach to Bear Management. Landowners in the countryside tend to call in Hunters to deal with a Bear problem rather than apporach Wildlife specialists, who might relocate the bears to the mountains.

There is a crisis in the mountains for Bears and this is why they are encountering people more regularly.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Much much can a black bear?

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

eh, i read the title and i was like :"Woaw, i want bears in town too !!!" , and then ..." they just shot it? without even trying to capture it for relocation?" that's pretty sad, i feel its in fact humans that should be relocated to a planet where they can't do any further harm. They could at least have tried ? There's seven billion people, by 2050 there will be 9 or 10 and probably no more bears. That's pretty sad

1 ( +1 / -0 )

11 people saw the same bear hmmmm were all the people in the same place?? All joking aside take the bear back to the moutains and then IF it reappears place it in a zoo... Sure some people may say it is cruel but I am sure it is not as cruel as shooting it!!

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Keep in mind the size and scope you're dealing with. In the United States the national park system is 338,000 km². And that number does not include the thousands of state managed parks and forests. Japan is 377,900 km² (give or take a couple km for disputed islands). You'll see a lot of tranquilizing of non-aggressive bears in the US because there's someplace far away for them to go.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Japanese bears are extremely aggressive and dangerous. Japanese bears are extremely territorial. 3. The population of Japanese bears has exploded over the past 15 years. 4. Japanese kill bears because it is the only way to deal with the problem.

Good to see someone with some common sense. I'm pretty sure a woman was killed earlier this year by a bear in Hokkaido. But strangely some 'people' believe the lives of bears are more important than humans.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

TokyoGas, a bear's size is normally referred to as its height.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

A one-meter-long male black bear...

Is that a full grown bear?

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

Probably just lost his bearings...

1 ( +3 / -2 )

The population of bears was kept down mainly by hunters and occasionally by starvation, other bears and rare traffic accidents. As the rural population has aged the number of hunters has fallen dramatically. In the past, each village had one hunter or a relative who was a hunter who had the knowledge, dogs and suitable weapons to hunt bears. Bears were hunted for their skins, internal organs (for Chinese medicine) and their meat. Less hunters equals more bears. Bears are not in danger of extinction.

Tranquilizing bears and returning them is not an option. You might have seen it on the tube, but that was for the cameras. As I mentioned, bears are territorial. If you drop a bear off somewhere, it will be run off by the owner of the territory (usually a mature female). It will then be forced to move downwards and will eventually turn up in someone's backyard (tagging and tracking have conclusively proved this). Putting bears into a zoo is not an option because mature bears cannot be caged together (especially females). If you have seen sluggish disinterested bears in a cage together in a zoo in Japan his or her food has been doped. Therefore very quickly you would fill up any vacant places available in zoos and have to start building bear prisons. A dead bear takes pressure of remaining bears by not competing for food. Unpleasant, but realistic. Gary
2 ( +3 / -1 )

I'd like to make a few clarifications concerning bears (pertaining to Japan as well as other places).

1. Japanese bears are extremely aggressive and dangerous. Japanese bears are extremely territorial. The population of Japanese bears has exploded over the past 15 years. Japanese kill bears because it is the only way to deal with the problem.

1-2. Female bears select and protect territory for raising their cubs. Usually two cubs are born each season, so the number is increasing exponentially. The only predator to bears (especially cubs) is other bears. They take the cubs to be a future competitor (for mates, food or territory ) and eliminate them when they have the chance. The reason the bears have incredible olfactory senses is to detect other bears. Female bears especially will attack anything that enters her territory. The father of my daughter's schoolmate went to a local mountain to collect mountain vegetables. He parked his car in the Spring Valley Ski area car park and walked around to the back to open the trunk. A bear stepped out of the grass and swiped at him. The poor fellow lost half of his face and one eye. Even four years later the right side of his face is a weeping scar. Bears are dangerous.

3 ( +4 / -1 )

Black bears are usually afraid of humans. Steer clear of them and you should be ok.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

@T-Mack

Is killed by death always the answer?

As far as I know, yes. Unless, of course, you've come up with another way to kill.

@MasterBape

but mans attitude of being more important makes the easy option of putting a bullet in its head.

It's not a matter of being "important," but rather intelligence. If bears could figure out how to shoot a rifle, they'd be popping us instead.

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

Does the government still put bells on the children's backpacks to warn the bears? This was the practice several years ago applied by bureaucrats who never studied Pavlov's conditioning. Keep the children safe and either relocate bears or decrease the population.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Now a couple in Niigata on the news, attacked by a bear in their house.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

Interesting. Wild animals have been finding ways to settle into American cities for some time now. Coyotes are apparently quite adaptable. Now there are indications of bears and mountain lions making their move.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Some people would argue that putting the bear into a zoo is cruel...anyone that's been to and seen the cramped spaces of Ueno Zoo should know this.

Relocating to another area would be good, but the bear can probably track it's way back if it wanted to.

Don't shoot it in the first place; teach residents to be more careful.

Hu,ans and animals can co-exist, but mans attitude of being more important makes the easy option of putting a bullet in its head.

Sad, but true.

-2 ( +1 / -3 )

I agree, bears should be re-located to the forests not shot by hunters.

2 ( +4 / -2 )

What's wrong with relocating the bear, or putting it into the zoo? Is killed by death alway's the answer?

4 ( +6 / -2 )

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