‘They will continue to increase’…Why have bears started to come down to human settlements? What is the expert’s opinion?

Today’s bears are not “afraid to encounter humans.

‘The maximum lifespan for a brown bear is currently estimated to be 34 years old. There must not be a single bear left today that has experienced being chased directly by hunters in the mountains when there were spring bear exterminations.

Bears today are not afraid to encounter humans. Their recent behavior gives me that feeling.”

Brown bears were originally considered to be highly wary of humans and tended to avoid people. However, the new generation of bears is apparently different.

There are many bears that don’t run away. For example, in Shiretoko National Park, where brown bears can be observed from sightseeing boats, the bears do not care if people are watching them. Even if a car passes through the park, the bears on the side of the road do not try to escape. The same is true of bears that have recently appeared in urban areas outside of Shiretoko, and many of them do not hide when they encounter people.

As for the human side, TV stations are rolling cameras to film bears that appear in residential areas of Sapporo, and residents are simply taking videos with their smartphones. They do not try to scare the bears. They don’t experience fear when they encounter people, so the bears come out into the city and act at their leisure.”

In addition, Professor Sato points out that “agriculture is also causing bears to be attracted to human settlements.

Until now, corn for livestock feed was often imported, but now the area planted with corn for animal feed is expanding in order to improve feed self-sufficiency. In addition, the number of businesses specializing in growing only feed is also increasing.

Fodder corn only bears fruit in August and September, when there is a shortage of food for bears in the forests. Moreover, there are no people in the feed corn fields from planting until harvest. For the bears, it is a safe restaurant where they are welcomed.

So the farmers set up box traps to catch the bears. The number of bears caught in traps and exterminated will certainly increase. However, the damage to the cornfields will not be eliminated because the all-you-can-eat feeding ground is still right in front of the bears.

There are even fields where more than half of the corn crop is eaten by bears. In order to keep bears away from the fields and reduce the number of bears entering human settlements, we need to take measures such as planting in fields away from the mountains and installing electric fences and repellent devices at the border with the mountains.