This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: As a sensor sounded, scientist Akiko Takii hurried to a bear trap deep in the forests of Nagano, Japan, where rising nationwide attacks have sparked fear and the culling of thousands of the animals. "It's a small bear, I think, about a year and a half old," Takii said as she peered at the 15-kilogram (33-pound) Asiatic black bear thrashing in the cage.
"It must have just parted from mother." Its mother wasn't around, and Takii took blood and fur samples after her co-researcher tranquilized the young female. The animal was too small to be tagged with a GPS tracker, so she was released. The process of trapping, tagging and releasing the animals is part of a pioneering management plan launched in 1995, as authorities realized the bear population was shrinking in the mountainous region in the center of Japan's Honshu Island.
It is becoming part of a model for coexistence in the region that some experts believe is an alternative to the dominant practice of culling the animals in an effort to prevent attacks. "By not killing too many of them, more bears survive to live out their expected lifespan. In that sense, a healthy bear population is being formed," Takii said of the process, which is paired with other methods intended to keep bears away from humans and monitor their movement.
Another group in the area used specially trained Karelian Bear Dogs to scare bears away, and more than 3,000 kilometers (2,000 miles) of fencing was installed near farms, towns and along rivers to prevent encounters. Bears that slip through are tranquilized, tagged and set free far away. The program has been credited with prompting both a recovery in bear numbers—although the animals are hard to count—and fewer encounters with humans.
There is little sympathy across much of Japan for healthy bear populations. Bears have killed six people nationwide since April 1, after a record 13 fatal attacks last fiscal year, according to the environment ministry. Sightings last year doubled the previous record, and bears are increasingly entering the outskirts of towns and cities.
The causes are complex and, including variations in the availability of food like acorns, are potentially linked to climate change. The emptying of rural areas due to depopulation and urbanization is also leaving forests, farmland and buffer zones less managed, said Shuichi Kitoh, a Tokyo University professor emeritus of environmental ethics. "Due to depopulation, people are no longer involved in nature and the forest like they were before," Kitoh told AFP.
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