{"id":83556,"date":"2026-09-01T06:09:12","date_gmt":"2026-09-01T06:09:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/83556\/"},"modified":"2026-09-01T06:09:12","modified_gmt":"2026-09-01T06:09:12","slug":"japan-bear-project-aims-to-show-coexistence-not-culling-can-prevent-attacks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/83556\/","title":{"rendered":"Japan bear project aims to show coexistence, not culling, can prevent attacks"},"content":{"rendered":"

As a sensor sounded, scientist Akiko Takii hurried to a bear trap deep in the forests of Nagano in Japan<\/a>, where rising nationwide attacks have brought fear and resulted in the culling of thousands of the animals.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a small bear, I think, about a year and a half old,\u201d Takii said as she peered at the 15kg (33lbs) Asiatic black bear thrashing in the cage. \u201cIt must have just parted from mum.\u201d<\/p>\n

Its mother was not around, and Takii took blood and fur samples after her co-researcher tranquillised the young female. The animal was too small to be tagged with a GPS tracker, so she was released.<\/p>\n

The process of trapping, tagging and releasing the animals is part of a pioneering management plan launched in 1995, as authorities realised the bear population was shrinking in the mountainous region in the centre of Japan\u2019s Honshu island.<\/p>\n

And it is becoming part of a model of coexistence in the region that some experts believe is an alternative to the dominant practice of culling the animals in an effort to prevent attacks.<\/p>\n

\"AkikoAkiko Takii works on a bear trap in a forest in Ina, Nagano prefecture, on July 6. Photo: AFP<\/p>\n

\u201cBy not killing too many of them, more bears survive to live out their expected lifespan. In that sense, a healthy bear population is being formed,\u201d Takii said of the process, which is paired with other methods intended to keep bears away from humans and monitor their movement.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As a sensor sounded, scientist Akiko Takii hurried to a bear trap deep in the forests of Nagano…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":83557,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[53121,9001,27604,11038,53201,15098,7381,7438,8,53202,21340,33,53200,53203,15793],"class_list":["post-83556","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-japan","tag-akiko-takii","tag-akita","tag-asiatic-black-bear","tag-bear-attacks","tag-bear-culling","tag-bear-population","tag-honshu","tag-iwate","tag-japan","tag-karelian-bear-dogs","tag-nagano","tag-nihon","tag-shinshu-asian-black-bear-research-association","tag-shuichi-kitoh","tag-tokyo-university"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83556","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=83556"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83556\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/83557"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=83556"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=83556"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=83556"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}