Authorities believe a man was mauled and beheaded by a bear in northern Japan after a human head was found near a lake, national media reported this week. A warning has been issued for brown bears following the incident.
Japan’s Kyodo News Agency reported that police said a fisherman had gone missing in Lake Shumarinai on Japan’s northernmost main island of Hokkaido. Toshihiro Nishikawa, 54, went fishing by himself in the lake and a boat operator spotted a bear wearing waders — long rubber boots often worn by anglers — on its mouth.
Horokanai city officials launched a bear hunt and a member of the search team killed a bear on Monday afternoon, Kyodo said. A human head was also found during the search and authorities are working to confirm whether it is Nishikawa’s remains.
Police say bear sightings in Hokkaido have increased this year, according to public broadcaster NHK. Authorities have received 339 reports as of last Thursday — 40 more than the same period last year, when bears were seen a record 2,240 times.
Solwan Georges/The Washington Post via Getty Images
Experts say there are a number of factors that make human-bear encounters more likely in the region.
“Probably the main one is that Hokkaido’s bear population has recovered after years of hunting and now there are very few hunters,” Kevin Short, a naturalist and professor at Tokyo University of Information Studies, told the South China Morning Post. . “Deer populations have also been restored, a major food source, while efforts have also been made to restore natural habitats in forests and along rivers across the prefecture, all of which increase the bear’s range.”
Two people have been injured in bear attacks in Hokkaido so far in 2023, NHK reported.
In 2021, a wild brown bear in Hokkaido Four injured and disrupted flights at the airport before being shot dead.
Brown bears mainly roam the forest, but experts say they have been increasingly seen foraging in residential areas, especially in warmer weather. In 2020, a city in Hokkaido is plagued by wild bears Installed robotic wolf Yelling at animals and scaring them.
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Stephen Smith
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