Fri 3 Nov 2006
>photo:Malcolm Fitz-Earle’05 Friday 3 November 2006
Damage caused by wild bears has increased sharply across the nation recently, and the areas where bears were spotted have expanded from mountainous regions to residential areas. Bears were spotted in residential areas of Kanazawa on Oct. 17; Numata, Gunma Prefecture, on Oct. 24; and in Yonezawa, Yamagata Prefecture, and Fukui on Oct. 30. What is unusual this year is the number of wandering, wild bears that have turned up in residential areas where they have not been spotted before. There are two types of Japanese wild bears–brown bears, found in Hokkaido, and black bears, located in Honshu and Shikoku. This year, there has been a remarkably high number of black bear sightings. At a meeting of local government officials in charge of dealing with damage caused by bears held by the Environment Ministry on Oct. 25, 4,888 black bear sightings were reported as of Sept. 30. The figure is substantially higher than the 3,077 sightings reported over the same period in 2004, when a large amount of damage was reported nationwide.
An official from the ministry’s Wildlife Division said, “The range of places where wild bears are active has been spreading toward areas at the foot of mountains.” The number of bear sightings often fluctuates depending on whether nuts are plentiful, but there are several more reasons for this year’s increase. Prof. Toshiki Aoi at Iwate University pointed out that the concentration of people in cities, the deterioration of forests and hills near residential areas, and a change in the way humans are in contact with nature have all contributed to the increase.
The 56-year-old researcher of forest ecology said, “The causes are multiple, and large-scale measures are needed to solve the problem.” One of the reasons for the sharp increase in bear sightings is the decline of the forestry industry. There are now more cedar and other conifer trees in forests than in the past, and there are fewer broad-leaf forests, which provide food for bears and other wild animals. In addition, many forests have been left unattended and are deteriorating, as wood prices have plunged due to increasing imports and little profit can be made from cutting down domestic trees.
People have stopped producing wood for stoves and wood charcoal at many of the hills near residential areas. Those living near forests have also lost the custom of cutting underbrush in forests. The second factor is a change in agriculture. Hectares of farmland have decreased in many regions, and many abandoned farms are seen in mountain-base areas. The conditions of mountains and foothills have deteriorated, and there are now more bushes, which make it easier for bears to move from one place to another without being spotted by humans. As a result, the range of places where bears can live is now quite near areas where many people live.
The third cause is a decrease in human populations in mountainous and mountain-base regions. As the number of people in active age groups decreased in the region and the percentage of elderly people rose, it has become easier for bears to sneak into residential areas. Shigeyuki Yamamoto, 55, head of Toyama Municipal Family Park Zoo, said: “In nature, bears fear humans. But if there is a lot of their favorite food, such as persimmons, near a residential area that they can easily approach through bushes, bears will try to secure food even though a certain level of risk is involved.” He said that the death of a 71-year-old man who was attacked by a bear in Nyuzenmachi, Toyama Prefecture, on Oct. 26 was an example of an unfortunate incident in such environmental circumstances.
Another factor is changes in hunting. Though spring hunts for bears were popular across the country until the 1980s, many local governments have prohibited bear-hunting since the 1990s because of fears of a declining bear population. Thus, the bear population is assumed to have increased. But Mayumi Yokoyama, senior researcher at the Museum of Nature and Human Activities in Hyogo, said: “Regrettably, there has been almost no scientific research on wild bears in the nation. So, even basic data to judge whether their population has increased or decreased is insufficient.”
The lack of data is a serious problem affecting efforts to protect and control wild bears. “Black bears in western Japan are designated an endangered species. If we carelessly continue getting rid of the bears, they may become extinct,” Yokoyama said. Many of the bear problems are the result of human lifestyles, and there can be many solutions. Tsutomu Mano, head of the Wildlife Section of the Hokkaido Institute of Environmental Sciences, said: “If we cut weeds near roads to widen the view, bears will approach less often. This has been proved by experiments. If we make such efforts, the amount of damage caused by bears can be reduced.”
Another urgent task is to train and send wildlife conservation and management officers out into the field who can provide help with the measures as well as ways to eliminate harmful animals. The United States and Canada have such a system, and the Hyogo prefectural government was the first in the nation to introduce a similar system. Five prefectural government officials who previously worked in forestry fields began implementing the system in spring under instructions from Yokoyama and her colleagues.
DNA analysis and other scientific methods to study the ecology of bears have progressed. The remaining hurdle is getting administrative entities to carry out such measures. Will the Environment Ministry, the Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Ministry, the Forestry Agency and local governments cooperate enough? There also needs to be measures implemented to eliminate dangerous bears, which is now done separately by prefecture, in wider areas in accordance with the activities of the animals. Aoi said: “The problem is not only with bears, but also deer and wild boar. Devising countermeasures on wild animals also involves creating a grand design for the nation on how to coexist with nature.”
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/features/science/20061104TDY04003.htm
February 3rd, 2007 at 11:10 am
Cool blog, interesting information… Keep it UP
July 30th, 2007 at 6:47 pm
I am American USAF contractor who has been living in Misawa City, Aomori Prefecture, Japan. I am also a Japan Licensed hunter for nearly four years now, (2003~2007) and a member of Japan Hunters Association. I primarily hunt Pheasant (Kiji//Yamadori) and Japanese deer (shika) in Aomori and Iwate Prefectures. I have seen bears in the wild in these areas and there has been a significant increase in sightings throughout Japan. I am not a wildlife biologists nor a member of any Japanese Government wildlife organization. This is my personal assessment of the current situation with increased bear sightings and attacks in the North, as I spend many hours in the forests hunting during the winter months. First, most of the towns and cities are basically out of room to expand, so more housing and business development is taking place near the forests where land is generally cheap, exposing a greater population of people near areas where bears live. Second, there are many farms in rural areas where farmers plant and grow a black bears favorite foods such as corn, chestnuts, persimmons, apples, and cherries. Third, there is vast deforestation in these prefectures where broad leaf forests are being cut down for the planting of the Japanese evergreen tree (sugi), for the production of lumber. Lastly, The average bear hunting season is only one month long from around Nov. 15th to Dec. 15th, resulting in an inadequate number of animals being taken every year. In summary, as people move and live closer to the forested areas and the home range of the bears is significantly decreasing with deforestation, the bears simply don’t have anywhere to go. As the bears have to move to find a forested area large enough for survival sustainability, in turn actually causes an over-population of bears in certain forested areas where there is not an adequate food supply, which then causes the bears to roam extensively to search for food as they are in competition with other bears. As areas become more populated, and there isn’t enough space and food, the bears tend to become more aggresive and wander into human populated areas in search of food. I believe that public education, such as farming, food disposal, learning about a bear’s lifestyle, and a comprehensive game management program are the first places to start to gain control.