SAPPORO — A hunters’ association in Tomamae, Hokkaido, has captured video of a massive brown bear as it attempted to eat venison bait from a box trap, ultimately toppling the 300-kilogram metal device.
This frame grab from video shows a massive brown bear near a box trap in the Hokkaido town of Tomamae. (Image courtesy of Toyoyuki Hayashi of the Tomamae hunters’ association)
The bear remains at large.
According to the Tomamae hunters’ association, a local farmer reported on Nov. 8 that bear tracks had been found circling their house. On Nov. 11, hunters set up a box trap — about 3.1 meters long, 1 meter high, and 80 centimeters wide — and a sensor camera near the home.
The footage shows a male brown bear, estimated at over 400 kilograms and about 1.9 meters long, appearing in the snow on the evening of Nov. 11 and again around 1 a.m. on Nov. 12. The video captured the bear shaking and toppling the trap as it tried to reach the venison bait.
The bear ate some venison that had fallen outside the trap and left without being caught.
Toyoyuki Hayashi, 76, a hunter with the association, said the trap had been anchored at four points with L-shaped iron plates and was designed to be immovable by two or three people.
“It was a clever bear — it didn’t even try to stick its head into the trap,” Hayashi said. He added that, given the bear’s size, it was unlikely to be wandering due to hunger.
(Japanese original by Haruka Ito, Hokkaido News Department)
AloJapan.com