The watch of a Japanese hiker killed by a bear has revealed harrowing details about his last moments, including that the animal returned to his body the next day, a newspaper report said.
Bears have killed a record 13 people in Japan this year and injured more than 200 others, while reports of the creatures roaming near schools and rampaging in supermarkets have heightened anxiety, especially in rural northern regions.
The hiker’s GPS watch, which uses satellite signals to log routes and monitors heart rate, was retrieved after the fatal attack on August 14, the Asahi Shimbun reported.
Data from the device showed that at around 11 a.m. it suddenly deviated from the hiking trail in Hokkaido and went down a forested slope, the daily said.
In an area of thick brush, it repeatedly circled and passed over the same spot.
The watch also showed that the man’s heart stopped beating about 100 to 130 yards from the trail, indicating that he died there.
The watch remained in the same spot all night but moved again around 9 a.m. the next morning, travelling several hundred yards through the brush.
This suggests the brown bear had come back and dragged the man’s body away, the Asahi said.
Three days later, on August 15, a bear with two cubs was spotted dragging his body in its mouth. All three animals were killed.
A mound of earth made by the bear was found nearby and traces of the man — who was engaged to be married — were discovered, the report added.
The victim’s parents were asked to identify the body, but police asked them only to look at his face because of the extent of injuries.
Bear spotted at Japan ski resort in latest incident
Meanwhile, a ski resort in Japan said Friday it had received reports of bear sightings while a snowboarder described how one of the animals chased him on the piste.
“We’ve been patrolling to check if there are bear footprints every day since we received two sighting reports on Sunday,” Kazuya Shirakawa of Hakuba47 Mountain Sports Park in Nagano region told AFP.
Ski resort employees have not seen any sign of bears since the reports, Shirakawa said.
Bears normally enter hibernation in winter, but a man was attacked early this month in the region while clearing snow near his home.
Meanwhile, a snowboarder who posted a video on Instagram of his encounter with a bear told media that the animal “chased him” on the ski slope.
“When I turned there was a bear. I was surprised,” he told private broadcaster TV Asahi.
The video he posted online four days ago showed a bear running towards him from below the course in Nagano.
It was unclear whether the ski resort was the same as where the other bear sightings were reported.
“It nearly collided with me… and our eyes met.”
The bear gave up and returned to the mountain, he said.
“A chance to expand their range”
Bears hungry because of shortages of food such as acorns — which has been blamed on climate change — are encroaching more into towns where the human population is aging and dwindling.
Experts say warmer weather is also affecting the hibernation patterns of the animals, which in the case of brown bears can weigh 1,100 pounds and outrun a human.
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Japan has two types of bear: Asian black bears — also known as moon bears — and the bigger brown bears that live on the main northern island of Hokkaido.
Thousands of the animals are shot every year.
The impacts of climate change on the bears’ food sources and hibernation cycles has been cited by experts as a key factor, but there are also implications as Japan’s aging population shrinks and humans abandon more rural areas.
That depopulation has left bears “a chance to expand their range,” biologist Koji Yamazaki, from Tokyo University of Agriculture, told CBS News‘ Elizabeth Palmer in 2023.
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