The same tension as on the battlefield: “On-Site Photo Report”…Accompanying Hunters in a Life-Threatening Fight Against Giant Brown Bears [Hokkaido] (Japanese only)

A brown bear lurking in the yabb…

Mother bear with cubs attacks humans without mercy!　Encountering the scene of the capture of a female weighing over 100 kg

My heart beats wildly. Even the slightest abnormality, if overlooked, could be fatal.

They must have known from the start that I was in the mountains and were watching me closely from within the thicket. Their noses and ears are far superior to those of humans. As a news photographer, I have covered many battlefields, including those in Ukraine and Afghanistan, but I still get thirsty from the extreme tension. Even more so when there are relatively new droppings and footprints.

It was late October when I entered the mountains of Ashoro Town in the Tokachi region of Hokkaido in pursuit of a brown bear, having obtained a hunting license and gun 17 years earlier. I relied on Mitsuo Kurokawa, 70, a hunter with 49 years of hunting experience, whom I look up to as my hunting mentor. He is a skilled hunter who once killed two brown bears in one day. Mr. Kurokawa tells us, “In October this year, I chased a brown bear.

Every year, I feel that the number of brown bears is increasing,” he said. The acorns and other nuts that brown bears like to eat have had a poor harvest due to the extremely hot summer, so they must be coming down from the mountains.

According to the Ministry of the Environment, the number of bear sightings in the first half of this fiscal year (April to September) reached 27,792, the highest number in the past five years. Human losses totaled 108 in 99 cases, especially from July to September, when more than 70% of the occurrences were in human living areas. The extermination of bears is an urgent issue.

Let us return to the scene at the beginning of this article. On the previous day, Mr. Kurokawa and I drove through the forest by car for “drift hunting,” while on this day, I accompanied him on “sneak hunting,” in which we walked through the mountains to kill the prey. The actual walking in the mountains, where brown bears lurk, made the hunting more tense than ever. Arisa Ito, 36, a young hunter who joined me in the mountains, had a horrifying experience the week before.

A brown bear lurking in a thicket roared at us,” she said. I couldn’t see it, but for the first time I felt the presence of a brown bear nearby and my body trembled with fear.

The trunks of the white birch trees around us had brown bear claw marks, and the ground was covered with tracks and scat. In the end, however, we did not encounter any brown bears that day. I have been hunting more than 100 times and have yet to confront a brown bear.

Brown bears are very cautious and rarely attack humans. There are hunters who have never shot a brown bear. But a mother bear with cubs will attack without mercy if she feels threatened. A mother bear will always be around her cubs, so you have to be careful,” said Kurokawa.

Ambush by pretending to be dead….you can’t be distracted by a bullet!

Two years ago, in October ’23, I encountered a brown bear extermination site. The location was in the mountains of Ashoromachi, Hokkaido. A fellow hunter, who was also in the mountains, informed us that he had shot a mother bear and her cubs, which weighed over 100 kg.

When we met up with the hunter in question, the cubs were out of breath, but the mother bear had taken a single bullet and was running up the mountainside. We took a large detour around the mountain and headed for the site on foot, descending from a high vantage point.

We had to go around a large area of the mountain and descend from a higher elevation to get to the site on foot. At the site, a mother bear was cowering on the slope. Kurokawa fired three or four shots to finish it off. Kurokawa said, “Even if you think you’ve got it down, you can’t be too careful.

Even if you think you have the bear down, you must not let your guard down. If the bear is lying on its back, you can rest easy, but if it is on its face, it is dangerous. It may pretend to be dead and lie in wait for you, and when you approach it, it may suddenly get up and attack you. It is important to watch the bear for a while and fire several shots at it even if it does not move. Last year in Hokkaido, a hunter was seriously injured when he was attacked by a prone bear.

Once the brown bears are exterminated, they are dismantled on the spot and brought down from the mountain in small pieces. Without dismantling, the bears are too large and heavy to carry home. Kurokawa continues, “We have to be careful during the dismantling process.

One of my apprentices, a man in his fifties, was dismantling an Ezo sika deer. He must have been hiding in the bamboos nearby. A brown bear, attracted by the smell, attacked him from behind. His gun was propped up in a tree far away and was not in the hands of his apprentice. He had no choice but to take a dismemberment knife and spread his arms out, making his body look as big as possible and shouting “Waah! and shouted “Waaah!

The brown bear was a big man, about 180 cm tall. The brown bear became afraid and retreated into the bush. However, he could not give up. It attacked again from behind, but was defeated by the apprentice who had secured his gun. The worst thing to do when encountering a brown bear is to show your back and run away. The brown bear, energized, will attack you from behind with sharp claws.

One wrong move and you will be killed. The life-threatening battle between giant brown bears and hunters continues.

It took four or five shots to finally kill it.

From the November 28 and December 5, 2025 issue of FRIDAY