Hiker's body found after bear drags him from trail into forest in Japan, officials say

CBS News

3 hours ago

A hiker attacked by a wild brown bear was found dead in northern Japan on Friday, officials said, a day after the bloody encounter that reportedly saw him dragged into a forest.
The hiker in his 20s tried to fight off the large animal but was pulled into the nearby woods with his legs bleeding profusely, local media outlets including the Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper said.
The man was attacked while walking a trail on Mount Rausu on the northern island of Hokkaido on Thursday morning, a local police spokesman told AFP.
On Friday afternoon, he was found and taken to a hospital where he was officially pronounced dead, according to a Hokkaido government official.
Hunters also caught and killed a bear near the trail, an official working for Shari town -- where the mountain is -- told AFP.
DNA analysis will be conducted to determine whether the bear was responsible for the victim's death.
A wallet containing a card that bore the man's name was found near the scene of the encounter in the northeastern part of Hokkaido, according to media.
A torn, bloodied shirt believed to be his was also found Friday, with nearby trees and soil dotted with traces of blood, Kyodo news agency said, quoting police.
Among other discovered items were a watch, a hat and what appeared to be tear gas, Kyodo said.
The number of brown bears in Hokkaido fell year-on-year in 2023 for the first time since 1991, according to estimates released this month.
There were about 11,600 at the end of 2023, down 500 from a year earlier.
The Hokkaido government cited unprecedented hunting of brown bears, with a record 1,804 caught in the 12 months to March 2024.
Human encounters with bears reached record levels in Japan last year, with 219 people attacked and six deaths in the 12 months to April 2024.
Climate change affecting food sources and hibernation times is a key factor, but as Japan's aging population shrinks, humans are leaving rural areas, and that is also leaving room for bears to move in.
"Then that area recovered to the forest, so bears have a chance to expand their range," biologist Koji Yamazaki, from Tokyo University of Agriculture, told CBS News' Elizabeth Palmer in 2023.
Japan is one of the only places on the planet where a large mammal species has been reclaiming habitat — which is good news for the bears, but if, as biologists suspect, the bear population is growing, the country will have to figure out new ways to protect people, and vital infrastructure like airports, from the animals.
Japan's government in February approved a bill allowing hunters to shoot bears in populated areas.
In December, a bear that rampaged through a Japanese supermarket for two days was lured out with food coated in honey. Police said the animal was trapped and later killed.
In 2023, hunters killed an elusive brown bear nicknamed "Ninja" in Hokkaido after it attacked at least 66 cows, the Associated Press reported. That same year, local Japanese officials and media outlets reported that three bears were euthanized after sneaking into a tatami mat factory in the northern part of the country.