Reina Uno: Can Bears and Humans Coexist? — Spreading Knowledge and Verification to Reduce Human Casualties

My answer to the question "Can bears and humans coexist?" is "Yes." Specifically, it means bringing accidents, such as injuries from bear attacks, as close to zero as possible. To achieve this, the key to coexistence lies in conducting thorough verifications to identify the factors and common patterns of accidents, and for humans to possess the necessary knowledge and countermeasures.

Whether animal or human, every action has a "reason," whether the individual is conscious of it or not. It is only by being conscious of "why they act this way" that we can truly understand the other party. It may seem like a detour, but I believe that by thoroughly analyzing the situation—much like a police forensic investigation—and responding accordingly, we can find a path to coexistence.

A few years ago, there was an accident in Akita Prefecture where four people gathering wild plants were attacked and killed by a bear. There was testimony from survivors that the bear, which should normally avoid encounters with humans, actively approached and attacked them. It is thought that the bear learned that "humans can be defeated relatively easily" and "can be eaten," leading to a succession of victims.

Most likely, the first victim encountered the bear in a bamboo thicket and was knocked down by a sudden blow from the startled bear. Afterward, the bear, curious about the smell of blood, returned and thought it "might be edible," leading to predatory behavior (bears eating human flesh). Then, because humans entered that area without knowing a dangerous bear was present, victims appeared consecutively.

Among wildlife measures in Japan, the biggest challenge regarding bears is how to reduce human casualties. Compared to wild boar, deer, and monkeys, the amount of agricultural damage caused by bears is overwhelmingly small (though they do target fruit and beekeeping). Therefore, it is necessary to consider agricultural damage and human casualties separately. While agricultural damage can be resolved financially to some extent, human casualties cannot. Reducing human casualties is essential for the coexistence of bears and humans.

So, what kind of bear causes an accident? In what kind of situation did the accident occur? Analyzing the circumstances of accidents in detail and ensuring humans have the knowledge not to create triggers for bear attacks—or to avoid places where such triggers are likely—will lead to a reduction in accidents. I will introduce some typical examples of accidents.

Every year, accidents involving bears at the entrances of homes make headlines. These are cases where people are attacked just as they step out of their front door, but in many cases, there are actually persimmon or chestnut trees in the yard that serve as food. Another characteristic is that many cases occur at houses near forest edges or rivers. This is because bears often use rivers and waterways to come down from the mountains.

Furthermore, these accidents occur in the early morning, and many of the victims are elderly. Why? Hardworking people from farming backgrounds (especially the elderly), who wake up earlier than those in the city, head out to work even when it is dark outside. Bears judge time by light and darkness, but humans check the time with clocks. Therefore, on days when dawn is late due to rain or clouds, humans encounter bears that have come into the yard during the night, and unfortunately, accidents occur. To avoid such accidents, simple measures like singing or making noise before stepping out of the door (giving the bear a chance to escape) are effective.

When we consider the commonalities of each accident and the behavioral characteristics of humans and bears based on on-site investigations, the causes and effects become linked. However, in reality, these are not sufficiently verified, and even the victims themselves seem to have little awareness that the appearance of bears in their yards was caused by the trees in their gardens.

It is generally said that parent and cub bears are dangerous, and there are cases where a mother bear attacks a human to protect her cub.

For example, because bears like sweets and steal fruit, many traps for capture are set in orchards. In such cases, it is extremely dangerous when only the cub is caught in the trap. The mother bear, who can move freely, is around the trap trying to save her cub. If a human comes to check the trap, they are attacked by the mother bear, who has the intent to attack, leading to a major accident. To avoid such accidents, measures such as ensuring the trap door does not close at the weight of a cub are effective.

There are cases where damage expands because a bear flees into a building, such as a barn, a souvenir shop, or a school building. The act of rushing into a human-made building seems strange at first glance, but for a bear, the inside is dark like a rocky cave, so it judges that it can hide itself. While difficult in a split-second situation, creating an escape route for the bear is also a way to reduce damage.

Cooperation with the police is also indispensable for collecting and analyzing information on such cases. For example, victims of human-bear accidents often suffer major injuries, and it is natural for them to want to erase the unpleasant memories as quickly as possible. Therefore, even if bear researchers like myself try to ask questions to prevent a recurrence following the police's on-site investigation and interviews, there are many cases where people refuse to speak, saying, "I already talked to the police."

While it is necessary to pay sufficient attention to the protection of personal information, if we can share information with the police and even accompany them to the scene, we can analyze the circumstances of the accident in detail, clarify the extent of the damage (whether it was from claws or bite marks, where the first wound was, etc.), and use that information to prevent recurrences.

It is also important to think from the bear's perspective. Much like police profiling, we estimate the sex and age of the bear that appeared or caused the accident. By focusing on footprints or partings in the grass, we can see their behavior, such as where they came from and where they moved to.

I learned these things in detail not only from animal behavior experts but also from senior Matagi (traditional hunters). Clearly, the behavior of living creatures differs depending on age and sex. Why did that specific bear cause damage? Why does it pass through that land? If we can cooperate with the police to analyze accidents in detail, we will be able to reduce bear accidents even further.

To avoid encounters and contact with bears, it is also important not to attract bears to areas where humans live. In a sense, it is normal to encounter a bear in the mountains, which are their habitat. Humans need to be aware that bears are present and take measures to avoid sudden encounters, such as walking while playing the sound of a radio. In other words, individual measures and awareness are important.

However, for bears that appear in urban areas where humans live, not only individuals but also the government must take comprehensive measures. In recent years, it is thought that the bear population has increased and their habitat has expanded. There are many sightings in urban areas far from mountainous or forested regions, and from the perspective of nipping potential human casualties in the bud, it is required to clarify the access routes bears use to reach urban areas.

For example, it is conceivable that bears travel from mountainous areas to urban areas along riverside forests while eating walnuts and other food. Bears feel uncomfortable in places where they are fully visible, so they move along rivers while hiding in the brush. Therefore, thoroughly mowing the grass along rivers to reduce the places where bears can hide will lead to keeping them away.

Bears also roam in search of food or to scout in preparation for the harvest season, so cutting off that purpose is also an effective measure. As part of "creating villages that are unattractive to bears," we can identify the locations of chestnut and persimmon trees within the village that serve as food and (to use an extreme example) eliminate the motivation for their appearance by cutting them down.

So, what kind of bears appear in urban areas? While it is only a "tendency," there seem to be many young bears (and males) with little life experience. Bears are basically solitary, but large male bears are a threat to other bears. Since large males secure places that are easy to live in with plenty of food, such as beech and acorn forests in mountainous areas, young bears are pushed out of the forest and consequently head toward urban areas. This tendency is prominent in years when the mountain harvest is poor.

Furthermore, as with many mammals, cases of male bears leaving their birthplace as a means to avoid inbreeding (dispersal) have been reported. The fact that young males consequently head toward urban areas is considered one of the behaviors based on mammalian ecology.

In rural areas, population decline and depopulation are causing a struggle at the boundary between wildlife habitats and human activities. Even if the population of deer and wild boar decreases through nuisance culling or hunting as a measure against animal damage, there is no guarantee that they will not target one's own field. This is not a comment from a protectionist standpoint, but it is more efficient to reduce damage by surrounding "things you want to protect," such as your own fields, with electric fences to protect them specifically. Conversely, even if the number of wild animals themselves decreases, as long as they are not thoroughly excluded from the area, individuals targeting the fields will always continue to exist.

Approximately 2,000 bears are captured annually in Japan. Most of this is nuisance culling, where bears appearing in orchards or around private houses are lured with honey or apples and captured in traps. However, since the traps themselves use bait, they also have the effect of attracting bears to the village. If a mother bear is captured and only the cubs survive, they will also live around the village (avoiding the male bears in the mountains), which leads to an increase in bears whose living sphere is centered around human settlements. Therefore, management with a set upper limit for trap capture is necessary.

I feel that the way the Matagi people interact with bears is a way of life that respects animals, based on the idea that "it is natural for wild animals to be there." Many of them originally have a sense of awe for nature, the mountains, and bears, and many like nature and animals. Precisely because they have used the nearby nature for gathering wild plants since childhood, they are people who know the mountains inside out, love the land, enter the mountains, and receive the blessings of the mountains.

Capture by traps is in itself a "culling operation," but by entering the mountains with a gun and observing the situation, one can grasp changes in bear population density and the environment. I believe it is ideal to protect and manage them while understanding the background, rather than culling as a mere task.

I do not want them to follow in the footsteps of the Ezo wolf, which was driven to extinction by human hands. I want to learn from the past and explore ways to coexist as fellow inhabitants of the Earth.