SHARI, Hokkaido—A hiker who was attacked and dragged into the bushes by a brown bear was found dead on Mount Rausu in Hokkaido’s Shiretoko Peninsula on Aug. 15.
Hunters searching for the man who went missing on Aug. 14 shot and killed three brown bears shortly after 1 p.m. on Aug. 15 in the area where the body was later found.
The adult bear and two cubs posed a potential danger to the rescue team, Hokkaido police said.
Rescuers had found a blood-stained shirt and shoes in nearby bushes.
The death of the hiker believed to be in his 20s was confirmed at 3:20 p.m.
An acquaintance of the hiker called police at around 11:10 a.m. on Aug. 14, saying his friend was attacked by a bear on a hiking trail on the 1,661-meter-high Mount Rausu.
The friend fled the scene and was unharmed.
Police began a ground search early on the morning of Aug. 15. They found several personal items, including a wallet, a shirt stained with blood, a hat and a wristwatch, several dozen meters off the hiking trail at an elevation of 550 meters.
Bloodstains were also found on the ground and on nearby trees.
According to police, the attack occurred when the two friends were descending the mountain. The attack victim was walking about 200 meters ahead of his friend when he shouted out the friend’s name.
The friend rushed to catch up and saw the man struggling with a bear. He was bleeding from around his thigh while the bear was dragging him into the bushes.
All three hiking trails leading to Mount Rausu were closed following the incident.
Hikers who had already entered the mountain took refuge at the Okhotsk observatory located near the site of the attack.
By the end of Aug. 14, police and a Hokkaido disaster prevention team had lifted 71 people out of the area by helicopter.
On the night of Aug. 14, Hokkaido officials issued a brown bear warning around the hiking trails on Mount Rausu.
INCREASED SIGHTINGS
Mount Rausu is a natural habitat for brown bears, and bear sightings on the hiking trails have recently increased in frequency.
A 68-year-old climber from Shikoku recalled an encounter with a bear shortly after noon on Aug. 10 when he was descending Mount Rausu.
When he reached a pass at an elevation of about 1,100 meters, he found himself about 5 meters away from an adult brown bear with two cubs.
Startled, he crouched down, and the bears were hidden in grass thickets to his right.
He slowly retreated together with other hikers, but the three bears returned to the trail and followed them uphill about 30 meters away.
After about 10 minutes, when the hikers reached the entrance of the Osawa area, the bears disappeared.
“It was the first time I encountered a bear on a hiking trail,” said the man, who has climbed mountains both in Japan and abroad. “Although they didn’t show any signs of attacking, I felt tense.”
In response to these bear sightings, the Shiretoko Nature Foundation on Aug. 13 conducted a joint on-site survey of the hiking trails together with the environment ministry and the town government of Shari.
No bears were observed during this survey, but there have been numerous recent sightings of adult bears with cubs, as well as solitary bears, in the area.
The foundation strongly urges hikers to carry bear repellent spray for safety.
(This article was compiled from reports written by Jun Hasegawa and Masatoshi Narayama.)
AloJapan.com