Researchers Hope To Cut Back Human-Bear Conflict in Japan

With a delicate touch, bear researcher Taki Akiko carries a tranquilized Asian black bear out of a trap used to help study the health of wild populations. She judges it's a female, maybe a year and a half old. Too small for a GPS tracker, but still a valuable source of information. With assistance from a professor at a local university, she notes the bear's measurements, takes blood and hair samples for lab work, and even checks the bear's teeth. Here in Japan, bear attacks are on the rise. The government says there were a record 13 fatal attacks last year. Sightings are up too, and call orders have been expanded. But Taki is part of a group of scientists proposing a different approach, starting here in the mountains of Nagano Prefecture. Since 1995, they've had a trap, tag and release program aimed to help bears and humans coexist, a program credited with both rising bear numbers and fewer attacks. She says it's possible. As long as people do their part to manage the land properly. In the past two decades, bears are becoming active in areas closer to human habitations. The curious reason behind it is that people don't take care of buffer zones anymore or abandoned farmlands at the skirts of mountains. It has allowed larger tracts of land to grow bush, where bears can roam for food without being seen by humans. Professor Emeritus of Environmental Ethics, Kito Shuichi, reviews Taki's footage of her most recent capture. He agrees that people need to do more, getting rid of temptations like garbage and fruit trees left to go wild as people leave rural zones. He also agrees on the value of studies like Taki's, looking at the wild bear population. It's not that bears in general are getting ferocious. Speaking about bears in relation to humans, we have to identify problematic individuals, which can be clearly distinguished from unproblematic ones. We can do it by conducting ecological surveys. While public attitudes towards bears are still largely negative, Taki is back at work, preparing honey for a trap to lure the next bear to tag with a tracker and release, hoping her more humane way of cutting down human-bear conflict gains wider support. Andy Hsueh and John Van Triest for Taiwan Plus.