Welcome back to Scary Bear Attacks!
Today’s episode takes us back to familiar territory.
If you remember our episode on the Sankebetsu Bear Attack you may remember the Japanese
Island of Hokkaido.
That episode was centered on a remote village that involved one of the worst bear attacks
in world history.
Today’s episode is located in the prefecture’s largest city, Sapporo.
This city has over 2 million residents and features an airport as well as a military
base for Japanese National Defense Forces.
The city is a typical urban landscape in composition but more interestingly, just outside the city
are very dense forests of Ezo Spruce, Sakhalin Fir, and Sakhalin Spruce.
Scattered stands of Erman’s Birch on the mountains that fade into Deciduous forests
of Mongolian Oak, Lime Trees and Ash Trees flow through the lowlands to the seashore.
The ground is covered with dwarf bamboo in the lowlands as well.
The climate here is a humid continental climate which means there are 4 distinct seasons but
plenty of rainfall making it similar to the Pacific Northwest of the United States.
The animal life includes the Ezo and Sika deer and very unique species of squirrel,
fox and rabbit.
The major predators here are the Asiatic Black Bear on the mainland and the Ussuri or Ezo
Brown Bear on the island of Hokkaido.
It is in this lush and beautiful setting that today’s episode takes place.
In recent years, farmers have moved from the rural areas into urban areas seeking job opportunities.
This flight has led to the abandoning of a cushion of civilized and humanized zones from
the edges of rapidly growing cities on Hokkaido.
The farmers and subsistence practitioners used to serve as a cushion between the bears
and the city but their untidy practices of discarding food waste made bears all too comfortable
around people.
The abandoned areas returning to their natural state has invited brown bear territory right
to the doorstep of city dwellers, now clueless on how to deal with brown bears, or any bears.
Add in the lack of younger generations being unfamiliar with firearms and hunting practices,
the key ingredients for an intense and dangerous environment has developed on the island.
On Friday, June 18th, 2018 one of the most interesting bear attacks happened.
At 3:30 AM a Ussuri brown bear was observed near the edge of the city.
He wasn’t a giant bear by any means but probably weighed about 450 to 500 pounds.
As we know by prior episodes bears on Hokkaido can stand over 8 feet tall and weight close
to 1,000 pounds when in prime shape.
This bear was young and therefore smaller, but still big enough to injure or kill any
human.
The bear was first reported by a resident running down a street in his housing development.
The hapless onlooker filmed the odd sight of the bear with his cell phone as he followed
the bear in his vehicle.
Soon other neighbors observed the bear as well and the reports of the bear began rolling
in.
It isn’t very common to see them this close to town so concerned locals notified authorities
just to get it on their radar.
Police issued a public warning about the sighting, but given the hour not many residents took
notice in time to head off the catastrophe.
At about 6 AM a 70 year old man was taking the household trash out.
He was just a few yards from his front door and was bent over placing the trash into a
bin to dispose of it.
The elderly gentleman was not aware that the bear had been spotted in the area and was
distracted by the chore he was doing.
The bear crept up from behind the man and surprised him.
It swiped at his back with its claws and gashed his skin.
He was completely taken completely off guard and faltered toward the ground as the bear
bounded down the block.
He then made his way inside and reached out to medical professionals for assistance continuing
the chain of alarms through the city officials and safety officers.
As reports rolled in to authorities about the bear, the animal trod a mysterious path
through the city.
As it ran by a resident in her 80’s the bear apparently reached out and randomly slashed
her with its claws on her arm and terrified her for a few seconds before loping further
down the residential road.
Fortunately her physical wounds were superficial but the damage the terror inflicted by the
attack is likely to go on for the rest of her life.
Somewhere between the prior attack and the next, the bear ran upon a man in his 40’s
who was walking on the street.
The bear bit into the man's arms and legs in numerous places.
It used its claws and teeth to tear at the man's chest and back as he fought for his
life.
By the time the bear was finished with this attack the man suffered numerous claw and
bite wounds across nearly his entire body and suffered severe injuries including a fractured
sternum.
As the wounded man lay incapacitated on the ground, the bear departed the scene and ran
further into the city.
If you noticed, these attacks seemed to ramp up in confusion, intensity and seriousness.
The longer the bear loped through the city the more frustrated it became, but still continued
toward the heart of the city.
By 7:50 AM the bear was being followed by a news reporter in a vehicle.
As the reporter filmed the bear dashing through town, it seemed to panic at being followed
and approached a large metal gate blocking a road into a military barracks for the ground
forces of Japan.
As soldiers tried to bar the gate and ran about in panic, the bear gripped the door
and pried it open winning the tug of war it had with a brave soldier trying to keep it
from entering.
As the door flung wide, the bear charged the man and pushed him a few feet.
Then it slashed him across his chest.
The soldier collapsed to the ground as the bear ran off, seeming to seek an escape from
the unavoidable bombardment of its senses from the bustle of the city.
Continuing on its chaotic dash through Sapporo, the bear next scaled a fence and entered the
runway of the adjacent airport around 8:15 AM.
Given the amount of confusion the bear had already created in the city, the airport officials
were quick to shut down the runways, which caused delays in flights.
This seemed to be the only place the bear could find a measure of solace and an escape
from the honking horns and roaring engines of the streets.
It spent the better part of an hour at the airport before it dashed toward the fence
surrounding the runways.
It apparently saw the trees nearby and hoped to find seclusion there.
It scaled the fence, dashed across several more lanes of traffic and disappeared into
the forest with local authorities soon arriving to give chase.
A local hunting club was notified of the bear's escapades after the barracks attack and the
attacks on citizens.
They grabbed their high powered hunting rifles and responded to the threat to their city's
peace and safety.
They soon found where the bear had hidden itself and surrounded it in a stand of trees.
Five shots rang out as they extinguished the bear's life and ended the chaos it wrought
on the citizens of Sapporo.
The standing tally was four people injured and one bear dead.
As in each episode, we have to examine the cause behind such tragic incidents.
Many people consider the behavior and frenzy of the bear to be the possibility that it
smelled a sow in estrus in the forest across the city, or mistook a scent from the city
as such.
Given that the city of Sapporo is about 9 miles across at its shortest distance I find
this unlikely.
Although bears are known to have the keenest sense of smell, the scent of a sow in estrus
would have to dominate the smells from the city between them.
This possibility is implausible at best.
That leaves open the possibility that the sow may have been located within the city.
Given the dangers to a bear and the harassment it would experience with the noise of the
city, it doesn’t seem realistic either.
So, I am asking you, why did this bear run toward traffic and noise?
Why did it continue toward the heart of the city when the easiest way to avoid it would
be to turn around and run back into the forest it came from?
Did too much competition for prime breeding or feeding ground force it into the city?
Did the farmlands that buffered the city in prior decades receding bring bear populations
too close to it?
Are the bear populations overrunning their resources after hunting faded from cultural
significance?
Post your comments below and let's talk about it.
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