On my morning stroll i saw a black bear in the Shiroyama park. As i read up on what to do when i saw a bear (slowly back away or make noise), i did none of those things and ran back to the main road as fast as i could. As there was also some sort of festival on not even 100m from where i saw the best, should i go somewhere to report my sighting?
Thanks in advance!
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I remember hiking in Asiatic black bear country over there and a lot of the local hikers were wearing bells. In America, people might do that for brown bears (though the effectiveness is questionable) but not for black bears. My guide admitted it was rather pointless that they were doing that but then it occurred to me that the country wore masks outside during the pandemic. Sort of fits.
If you want to report it, the easiest way would probably be to go to the tourist information office – they’ll speak English and be able to pass it on to whoever if they think it’s a problem. Or you could try the koban but unless you speak Japanese that’s probably going to be painful.
Iam currently in tokio and while sitting on a bench, an elderly man came to me and started chatting. He told me to watch out for bears while hiking. I laughed at him but he said that this year there are way more encounters (also some deadly) than usual.
So be carefull!
I appreciate that you reported it here first. Was gonna take my kid there this afternoon 😱 thank you
Edit: please let the local authorities know. There’s been way too many bear attacks this year already!
Wow, thanks for the heads up! I’m visiting Takayama in 3 weeks and I didn’t think that there would be a risk in the more central locations, especially if there was a festival going on nearby.
Coming from the UK I wouldn’t have a clue what to do if I saw one, so I’d better start reading up on some bear safety!
I’m not sure if “ran back to the main road” is hyperbole, but you should know that actually running away from a predator is almost always the wrong decision, as it activates their prey drive, and an animal that might not have even noticed you will instinctively start chasing you. The same is true for feral dogs.
If anything, walk away slowly. If they notice you, make yourself look as big as possible and talk in a calm but authoritative voice. If they keep heading in your direction, raise your voice and start acting aggressive (honestly, talking shit to them is the most effective, haha).
That will take care of 99.99% of black bear encounters.
Good luck!
SOURCE: years spent living in the North American back country; also, every bear safety manual ever.
The bear is probably shit scared and is now watching videos of what to do when encountering humans.