Photo/Illutration A bear is captured in front of JR Rikuzen-Ochiai Station in Sendai in September. (Provided by the Tohoku Monkey and Mammal Management Center)

Bears are expanding their habitat into depopulated areas around Japan, posing a threat to the residents who still live in those municipalities.

Local government officials, particularly in northern parts of the country, have increased their quotas on bear hunting.

However, Asian black bears are internationally classified as an endangered species, and the local officials would rather find a way to coexist with the “urban bears.”

But a solution appears out of reach so far.

On the evening of Sept. 6, a female bear was spotted in a residential area in front of JR Rikuzen-Ochiai Station in Sendai’s Aoba Ward where there had been a spate of bear attacks since August.

The bear was found climbing a street tree and was captured.

Five bear attacks were reported in Miyagi Prefecture between April and September this year, resulting in injuries to seven people.

It was the highest number of attacks since the prefectural government began keeping records in 2001.

The Environment Ministry said the number of bear attacks in residential and urban areas around Japan grew by 2.3 times to 28 in fiscal 2020 from 12 in fiscal 2016.

DWINDLING BUFFER ZONES

An underlying cause of the increase in attacks is that bear habitats have continued to extend into areas close to human habitation.

To find a connection between the movements of bears and people, The Asahi Shimbun compared the Miyagi prefectural government’s list of areas regularly visited by bears from 2012 and 2022, based on sightings, with demographic statistics from censuses taken in 2010, 2015 and 2020.

Koji Yamazaki, a professor of animal ecology at the Tokyo University of Agriculture who is also a bear expert, was commissioned to analyze the data.

The study found that in many areas where people have moved away, agriculture land and “satoyama” mountain foothills near residential neighborhoods are now desolate.

These places have become overrun with wild vegetation, essentially expanding the natural environment for bears.

Yamazaki said the expansion started in or around 2016.

“Declining human activity has gradually narrowed satoyama, the ‘buffer zones’ that have maintained a symbiotic relationship between humans and bears,” he said.

Asian black bears have disappeared from the Kyushu region and are in danger of extinction in the Shikoku region.

Environment Ministry guidelines say the annual number of bears that can be hunted should be capped at 12 percent of their estimated population.

But the Miyagi prefectural government raised its ceiling to 15 percent in April. Its survey for fiscal 2021 showed the estimated bear population in the prefecture rose to 3,629, more than double the figure for fiscal 2014.

The Akita prefectural government also doubled its upper hunting limit to 1,012 in April based on its survey showing the estimated bear population has been growing by 23 percent annually.

“The guidelines are merely a target number,” a ministry official said. “Local governments can determine how many bears are allowed to be hunted based on the situation in each area. It is not problematic if the number exceeds the upper limit.”

PROTECTION PREFERRED

Miyagi prefectural officials occasionally release captured bears in the mountains.

“We want to avoid killing them as much as possible and to protect them because their population won’t increase drastically like boars and deer,” an official said.

Professor Yamazaki said the “urban bears” captured should be analyzed to determine which types are more prone to wander into human settlements.

“Depopulation and other social factors cause them to enter urban areas, and there is no way to stop them. We must study the bears first and then come up with countermeasures,” he said.

(This article was written by Ryo Ikeda and Ryohei Miyawaki.)

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