BEARS IN NORTH JAPAN

Press, Volume XCV, Issue 28260, 24 April 1957, Page 11

BEARS IN NORTH JAPAN

Hunt By Farmers (From a Reuter Correspondent) TOKYO. Hunters began to move into the forests of Hokkaido, in northern Japan, during March to hunt bears which killed two persons and severely mauled more than a score of others during the winter. Local authorities declared an open hunting season following reportsvfrom outlying districts that the bears had killed more than 500 sheep, ’ 200 horses, 50 cows and a large number of pigs. Forest rangers attached to the Dai Setsu National Park, Hokkaido’s largest bear reservation estimated that more than 4000 bears, out of the reservation’s total bear population of some 10,000, had left their lairs and were roaming the countryside as spring approached. Hokkaido newspapers reported an abnormal number of bear attacks on the pioneer peasant farmers who settled in Hokkaido when they were repatriated from Manchuria at the end of World War 11. The newspapers said that adverse weather conditions and lack of food had caused the bears to attack the farming communities. Unseasonable warm and rainless weather, followed by an extremely cold, spell, destroyed nearly 90 per cent, of the island’s crops last year and more than 184,000 pioneer farming families were living near starvation level. They are too poor to purchase even the cheapest farm machinery and cannot afford weapons to protect their families and stock against the bears.