Tokyo – An agitated bear traveled the aisles of a grocery store in the center of Japan, injuring two men and frightening the buyers, officials announced on Wednesday, while the Japanese media indicated that a man had been found dead after another presumed attack on a bear.
More and more wild bears have been seen in Japan in recent years, even in residential areas, including a Human population in decline and climate change.
A man was found dead on Wednesday on a mountain in the northern region of Iwate on Wednesday after an alleged attack of a bear, according to the NHK public channel citing the police.
In addition, the 4.5 -foot adult bear that entered the grocery store on Tuesday evening in Numata, Gunma, north of Tokyo, slightly injured a man in his sixties and another in sixty years, said regional police and firefighters.
The store is close to mountainous areas, but none bear approached it before, Hiroshi Horikawa, manager of the grocery chain, told AFP.
“He entered the main entrance and stayed inside for about four minutes,” he said. “He almost climbed on the fish box and damaged the glass. In the fruit department, he overturned a bunch of avocados and trampled on it.”
The store manager told local media that around 30 to 40 customers were inside at the time and that the bear had become agitated when he was fighting to find the exit.
Also on Tuesday, a farmer from the Iwate region was scratched and bitten by a bear, accompanied by a cub, just in front of his house.
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A Spanish tourist was attacked on Sunday by a bear to a bus stop in the picturesque village of Shirakawa-Go, in central Japan.
Between April and September, 108 people throughout the country have suffered injuries caused by bears, including five deathsAccording to the Ministry of the Environment. There have been a record number of Human meetings with bears In Japan last year, with 219 attacks, including six dead in the 12 months until April 2024.
The impacts of climate change on food sources and bears hibernation cycles were cited by experts as a key factor, but there are also implications as the aging population of Japan decreases and humans abandon rural areas more.
This depopulation has left the bears “a chance to expand their distribution area,” said biologist Koji Yamazaki, of the University of Agriculture in Tokyo. told CBS News“Elizabeth Palmer in 2023.
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Japan is one of the rare places in the world where a kind of major mammals has reconquered its habitat – which is good news for bears, but if, as biologists suspect, the bear population increases, the country will have to find new ways to protect people and vital animal infrastructures.
