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Posted in: 11 bear sightings reported in Nagano City See in context

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.

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