Dogs keep the bears out in mountain town in Japan

Standing on a pitch-black road early one morning, Mr Junpei Tanaka used a radio receiver to scan the mountain for bears.

Having located his target, the 49-year-old man, who is a member of the Picchio wildlife conservation group, walked into the wilderness, accompanied by his dog Rela.

About 10 minutes later, a deafening bark was heard. 

The pair successfully drove two bears away that day. 

According to media organisation NHK World, 167 bear attacks – an unprecedented number – have been reported in Japan in the first 10 months of 2023, and have made headlines throughout the country.

Between April and July alone, 54 bear attacks resulting in fatalities or injuries were recorded.

But joint efforts by Picchio and the Japanese government to help bears and people coexist go back years. 

Karuizawa, a mountain town in the south-east part of the Nagano Prefecture – some 70 minutes from Tokyo by train – became the first Japanese community to introduce dogs like Rela in 2004.

Known as “bear dogs”, they are trained to chase the carnivorous mammals back into the mountains when they approach human settlements, reported The Asahi Shimbun.

According to the media outlet, these efforts seem to have borne fruit, as no bear attacks on humans have been reported in the town’s residential areas since 2010. 

Following a surge in bear sightings in the 1990s, Karuizawa was the site of four violent encounters between bears and humans from 2000 to 2010.

Picchio and the government attach Global Positioning System-enabled collars to captured bears before releasing them back into the wild. The bears are also taught to be wary of humans.

The bears are tracked daily, and chasing teams, such as Mr Tanaka and Rela, are deployed if the animals wander close to human settlements.

Electric fences have been installed, and rubbish bins are bear-proof, to further protect the town.  

Mr Tanaka told The Asahi Shimbun: “We’ve spent 25 years teaching bears to stay away from humans. 

“Culling them alone doesn’t solve the problem, and we need to manage bears as well as the environment surrounding them so we can coexist.”

Japanese authorities have

issued a safety warning

to those visiting the mountains in autumn that bear sightings may become more common due to the bears finding it harder to get food.

Located about 400km from Karuizawa, Akita prefecture has

put a bounty on bears

and plans to hand out 5,000 yen (S$45) to hunters for each bear they shoot, reported Bloomberg on Oct 27.