82-year old Hiroshima woman fends off bear attack by punching it and knocking it down

granny dont play. I bet her husband took note of this and did the dishes that night.

Wow, now that is one headline one does not see often. One tough obasan!

Don't mess with her.

The population of the Asiatic Black bear in Japan has dwindled due to poaching and clashes with farmers

Not so sure about that but I might be getting confused with the brown bear.

My friend is a wild animal researcher at Tohoku University here in Sendai.

According to him; the depopulation of(humans in) higher altitude mountain villages has left abandoned houses with ferral friut trees especially perssimons. This combined with the derth in hunters and hunting dogs has meant that the bear population is exploding here in Tohoku. It is not a lack of food that is causing these bears to desend into towns and villages (and even cities like Sendai), it is the population growth. A female will have up to four cubs. As there is abundant food most of these are surviving and later breeding.

As the cubs mature they are forced out of their mothers territory. As the territory up high is limited they are forced or enticed by crops to seek lower areas to inhabit.

A dwindling population would mean that there would be less human/bear encounters , wouldn't ity?

gary

The article failed to mention she is a retired MMA fighter...

Incredible! It would be hard to to top that story.

"I just survived an encounter with a Japanese obachan!," the bear boisterously tells it's friends

Ding ding..... and the bear is down for the count! Quick thinking granny! I bet she hit it in the nose without even knowing it!

I'm impressed

I like the sound of this woman.

Tough woman. The animal bearly survived.

This woman is awesome. My late wife would have said gambaro oba chan.

She chinned a bear?

Serious hardcase.

She shouldn’t have been wandering around in the bears territory anyway. She’s extremely lucky she got a lucky shot in.

@Vince Black - Ummmm... she was in her own back yard :P

Well done old lady! If you do get attacked, trying to punch a bear in the face is apparently the right move.

They recommend equipping a radio, cell phone, or even a bell when heading into the area's mountains.

I don't think its an "even a bell". If you're heading into woods on trails for walking, running or mtb, you should carry a bear bell, in your hand or swinging from your back. Let it know you're coming.

Why is this news? Japanese obasans are practically indestructible.

Fiddly coins cause them greater problems than wild carnivores

"but it feels like I hit it and sent it flying back." The bear then fled the scene.

she's one of the few people that can say she fought back against an attacking wild animal and got away with it

Ever pet a young, tame Black Bear? They are made out of some amazingly strong stuff and, feeling that strength, any thought of a 'heroic' defense against a SERIOUS bear goes completely out of mind. I think the bear may have been as surprised as she was and swiped her reactively. As they mentioned, 252 sightings and first actual contact so, unlike America, hopefully no one is in a big hurry to murder this curious, and demonstrably, only curious and neither angry nor hungry animal. I wonder how many 'Human sightings' the bears recorded and turned the other cheek, a rear one...

Yup, a nose shot. Punch it, hit it with a stick, anything. Extremely sensitive area. They'll retreat. Way to go granny.

@Zichi

Were that taken in Yoyogi Park, we'd then have to call the bear Yo-Yogi bear !

Looks like it pawed her rear end too... should get the Park ranger out after him for molesting young Women.

But certainly Kudos to the Girls... they showed no fear - perhaps they didn't really appreciate the Danger that they were in ? Next time in with the big fishes eh?

Winnie got the Pooh knocked out of him.

As a teenager, sleeping in a sleeping bag in Yellowstone Park, I was awakened by a Grizzly Bear pulling me by the feet. I squirted out of that sleeping bag like paste out of a toothpaste tube hit with a hammer. While I was inside the car, the bear put its feet on the roof and started rocking the car back and forth. Was too tired to drive out of the park, so once the bear gave up, went to sleep in the front seat. Lucky for me the bear never thought to just push a window out with its face.

We had a black bear (much, much smaller than a grizzly) raid our camp while camping in the Sierra Nevadas, here in California. She came with her two cubs, smacked open our metal ice box, took the ham from inside, and then slowly waddled back into the forest, followed by her cubs. We watched from the safety of our car, and didn't have any ham for dinner. Fortunately we had caught lots of trout. There is lots of wildlife here in the States.

It just wanted a selfie-that’s all..

Cool story granny. I find it far more likely the bear was curious what the almost unmoving crouching lump was or wondering if it was edible, and started to paw at it only to be completely shocked when the lump turned its face toward the bear and the bear accidentally swiped her face as it turned to flee. Also probably a very young bear.

She shouldn’t have been wandering around in the bears territory anyway. She’s extremely lucky she got a lucky shot in.