Japan hunter missing after possible bear attack as officials issue animal sighting warning
The deer hunter in his 50s went missing on Mount Esan on Tuesday, the Hokkaido prefectural police and local fire department said. Police said they were informed through an emergency call that the hunter had not returned after venturing into the forest.
Bloodstains and a hunting rifle believed to belong to the missing man were found on a road at the foot of the mountain, the Japan News reported.
The local police and firefighters have deployed a helicopter to search for the missing person.
The hunter went missing just two days after Hokkaido authorities, for the first time, issued a top-level alert about brown bears in one of its towns following repeated bear sightings and fatal attacks.
The police said a bear was sighted in the area where the hunter went missing.
Bear sightings in towns and villages of Japan have surged in recent years due to fluctuating harvests of staple foods for bears, combined with rural depopulation.
Experts have also pointed to the declining number of children in country towns and villages, whose naturally noisy presence once helped deter bears, as another contributing factor.
The bear warning was issued after a 52-year-old newspaper deliveryman was found dead in the bushes in the early hours of Saturday with wounds that resembled a bear attack.
The man's body was found with claw marks and bites on his abdomen, The Mainichi reported. He was attacked and then dragged into the bushes by the bear.
The bear that attacked the man was about 1-1.5m in body length and did not run away even when a witness shouted, according to reports.
The brown bear warning is expected to be effective through 11 August and locals have been instructed to be careful, especially during nighttime outings and not to leave food waste outside homes.
An 81-year-old woman was found dead after an apparent bear attack at her home in Iwate prefecture in northeast Japan.
In April, authorities in the Nagano prefecture are on high alert after a bear attacked three people in Iyama, leaving two seriously injured. The animal entered residential properties, broke through glass and attacked two men and a woman, local media reported.
Following the spate of attacks, Japan's parliament enacted a revised law to allow municipalities to authorize "emergency shootings" by hunters when dangerous animals, such as bears, enter populated areas.
In early 2024, the environment ministry reported to an expert panel that there were 19,192 sightings of Asian black bears between April and October 2023, the highest figure ever, exceeding the 18,000 sightings logged in 2020.
Typically, bear sightings peak in June and decline through October, before rising again in subsequent months. However, in 2023, the numbers began climbing earlier, with some 6,000 sightings reported in October of that year alone.
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