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🇫🇷 France /Environment & Climate

After the state killed 14,000 bears, a minority of Japanese are trying a less brutal strategy

From Le Figaro · () French

Translated from French and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

In-depth Named sources Context piece
  • A bear-management program in Nagano uses tranquilization, monitoring and relocation as an alternative to large-scale culls elsewhere in Japan.
  • The program began in 1995 after officials observed a decline in the regional bear population and now includes fencing and specially trained dogs.
  • Bear encounters are increasing nationally, with six people killed since April 1 after 13 fatal attacks the previous year, according to Japan’s Environment Ministry.

When a sensor is triggered in a forest in Nagano, Akiko Takii hurries to a bear trap. The animal inside is a 15-kilogram Asiatic black bear, probably about a year and a half old. Takii believes it has only recently left its mother.

After checking that the mother is not nearby, the team anesthetizes the young bear and takes blood and hair samples. It is too small to receive a GPS tag, so it is released. The operation belongs to a program presented as a less brutal alternative to the mass killing used elsewhere in Japan.

The coexistence program began in 1995, after authorities found that the bear population was declining in this mountainous part of central Honshu. Takii says the approach allows more bears to live out their normal lifespan and is creating a healthier population.

By not killing too many, more bears survive to their normal life expectancy. A healthy bear population is thus being formed.

· Akiko TakiiShe explains why the Nagano coexistence program favors monitoring and relocation over mass culling.

The program also tries to reduce contact between bears and people. More than 3,000 kilometers of fencing have been installed near farms, towns and rivers. Specially trained dogs have been used to drive bears away, while animals that approach inhabited areas can be tranquilized, marked and released away from homes. Project officials say the strategy has helped rebuild bear numbers, although they remain difficult to measure precisely, and has reduced encounters with people.

The approach remains a minority view elsewhere in Japan. The Environment Ministry says bears have killed six people since April 1, following a record 13 fatal attacks the previous year. Reports of sightings doubled last year compared with the previous record, and bears are increasingly appearing on the outskirts of cities. Changes in food availability, including acorns, may be linked to climate change, while rural depopulation has weakened residents’ connection with forests and nature, according to environmental ethics professor Shuichi Kitoh.

Because of the depopulation of the countryside, residents are no longer involved with nature and the forest as they were before.

· Shuichi KitohHe links rural depopulation to changing relations between people and bears.
About this summary

Originally published by Le Figaro in French. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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