Bears kill record number of people in Japan this year as another possible victim is reported missing

Bears have killed a record number of people in Japan this year, the Environment Ministry said Thursday, as another possible victim was reported missing.

Bears hungry due to a shortage of food such as acorns, which has been attributed to climate change, are increasingly invading cities where the human population is aging and declining.

Experts say the warmer climate is also affecting the hibernation patterns of the animals, which in the case of grizzly bears can weigh 1,100 pounds and run faster than a human.

The new total of seven deaths in the current fiscal year “is the highest number since 2006, when statistics began,” an Environment Ministry official told News.

The previous high of five human deaths recorded in the 2023-24 fiscal year was surpassed, the official told News on condition of anonymity.

More than 100 other people have been injured, including bites and deep cuts caused by the bears’ sharp claws.

The record was reached after it was confirmed that a man in his 70s was found dead on October 8 in the northern Iwate region had been killed by a bear. Japanese broadcaster TV Iwate said the man’s head and torso were separated.

The body of another man in his 70s, also in Iwate, was found just two days later in a forest where he had been picking mushrooms. A few days earlier, the body of a 78-year-old man with multiple claw marks was recovered in central Nagano prefecture.

However, the cause of death has not yet been confirmed in either of those last two cases.

In August, a hiker in northern Japan He tried to fight a bear, but was dragged into a nearby forest where he was found dead.

They find blood stains after reporting the disappearance of a worker

A worker at a hot spring resort in Kitakami, also in Iwate, was also reported missing on Thursday. Local media said a search team had found what appeared to be human blood.

Five more people were injured Thursday in incidents in Akita and Fukushima prefectures, Fuji Television reported.

A 4.5-foot adult bear entered a supermarket in the Gunma region, north of Tokyo, last week, leaving a man in his 70s and another in his 60s with minor injuries.

The store is near mountainous areas, but bears have never been approached before, Hiroshi Horikawa, an executive at the supermarket chain, told News.

The animal damaged a fish compartment and “in the fruit section, it knocked over a bunch of avocados and stepped on them,” he said.

The store manager told local media that between 30 and 40 customers were inside at the time and that the bear became agitated as it struggled to find its way out.

A Spanish tourist was also attacked by a bear this month at a bus stop in the picturesque town of Shirakawa-go, in central Japan.

Japan has two types of bears: Asian black bears, also known as moon bears, and the larger brown bears that live on the main northern island of Hokkaido.

Thousands of animals are killed every year.

Experts have cited the impacts of climate change on bears’ food sources and hibernation cycles as a key factor, but there are also implications as Japan’s aging population shrinks and humans leave more rural areas.

This depopulation has left bears “an opportunity to expand their range,” according to biologist Koji Yamazaki of the Tokyo University of Agriculture. told News themezone‘Elizabeth Palmer in 2023.

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• Japan