On June 8 (UK time), according to The Guardian, Utsunomiya city, about 100km north of Tokyo (Japan), decided to close all 94 primary and secondary schools after a black bear was discovered in the urban area.
According to local authorities, the bear, about 1m long, was first seen near a park on June 6. This is the first time this animal has been recorded to appear in a city of about 500,000 inhabitants.
Until dawn on June 7, surveillance cameras continued to record the scene of the bear running past two young men on a street in the city center. After that, it continued to appear in many residential areas before being seen again at about 4 am on June 8, in an industrial park, about 2km from the center.
Faced with the above situation, the Utsunomiya government has asked people to close doors and windows, not to approach the animal if caught, and to quickly find shelter in the nearest buildings. The city also deployed mobile radio cars to warn residents.
Police forces and local hunters have resumed the search for the bear since the morning of June 8.
The incident took place in the context that Japan is witnessing a sharp increase in the number of bears appearing in residential areas. This year, the country recorded about 50,000 bear sightings, mainly concentrated in the northeast region.
Bear attacks on people have also tended to increase in recent years. Last week, in Fukushima, a bear attacked 4 people before breaking into a company office, injuring an employee, then continued to enter the factory and was said to have opened the window to escape.
According to experts, fluctuations in natural food sources such as oak have caused bears to frequently approach residential areas to forage. In addition, the decline in rural population, especially young people leaving their hometowns to move to cities, has also made many areas more deserted, increasing the possibility of bears entering and contacting humans.
Currently, it is estimated that there are from 12,000 to 42,000 black bears in Asia on Honshu Island. Authorities in Japan are testing many new measures, including a camera system combined with artificial intelligence to monitor and warn early about bear migration routes.
