A bear that wreaked havoc in a Japanese supermarket for two days was finally lured out with food coated in honey, captured, and scheduled to be killed on Monday, according to local officials.
Japan is facing an increasing issue with bears, with a record six human fatalities from attacks and over 9,000 of the animals killed in the previous fiscal year. In the most recent incident, police received an urgent call early Saturday reporting that a bear had injured a 47-year-old man in a supermarket in Akita, located on Japan's main island of Honshu. The man sustained a head wound that will require at least a week to heal once his stitches are removed, according to a doctor cited by a police spokesman.
The supermarket was evacuated, leaving the bear inside, where it reportedly caused extensive damage to the meat department, as reported by the Asahi Shimbun daily. Early Monday, the bear was successfully enticed into a trap containing rice bran, bananas, apples, and bread, all coated with honey, according to an Akita official. The official stated, "We set up two traps, and one of them successfully captured the bear on the backyard side of the supermarket." The animal was slated to be killed later that day, the police spokesman confirmed.
Human fatalities from bear attacks in the fiscal year ending March 31 included an elderly woman attacked in her garden and a fisherman whose decapitated head was discovered by a lake. This period saw the highest number of deaths since the government began collecting data from 2006 to 2007. Over 200 other people were involved in incidents with bears. Experts attribute the rise in bear encounters to the shrinking human population in rural areas, which forces hungry bears to venture closer to villages and towns. Additional factors include climate change, which affects the omnivores' food supply and hibernation patterns. This summer was tied for the warmest on record in Japan.
In the previous fiscal year, a record 9,097 bears were killed, more than double the number from the previous period, according to the environment ministry. Local media reports indicate that authorities are struggling to find enough hunters to shoot the animals, citing Japan's declining and aging population. Japan is home to two types of bears: moon bears and the larger brown bear, which can weigh up to half a tonne (1,100 pounds), outrun a human, and, in Japan, is found only on the main northern island of Hokkaido.
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