A Report on Human and Japanese Black Bear Conflicts in Kasuga and Muraoka, Hyogo, June and July, 2002

Abstract

The population of Japanese black bear (Ursus thibetanus) in Hyogo prefecture has been endangered to local extinction. However, human bear conflicts such as crop damage, misstrapping and occasional appearance in human territory have continued. We report these conflicts: Two cases of nuisance control in Kasuga town (June 30, 2002), Muraoka town (June 28, 2002) ; and a case of release of a miss trapped bear in Muraoka town (July 23, 2002). These cases have suggested several issues regarding bear management, such as the lack of bear management policies, no program for maintaining human safety, and the existence of bears that are habituated to people. We discuss these issues to implement bear management both for human safety and bear population persistence.