Bear attacks occurred on three consecutive days in northern Japanese prefecture.
It’s hard to imagine a worse way to start your day than what happened to a 27-year-old man in Akita Prefecture on Tuesday. At around 8 a.m., he stepped out of the front door of his home in the town of Gojome, and was about to get in his car to drive to his farm, when a bear attacked him.
The man was able to fight the bear off, but not before suffering injuries that, while later deemed minor, required him to call for emergency services and report “A bear bit my elbows and butt.” He was rushed by ambulance to a hospital for treatment.
Looking at the above video of where the attack took place, it’s not a bustling city, but it’s not exactly in the middle of nowhere either. The neighborhood is a residential area with bordering farmland, yet developed enough that one wouldn’t expect to encounter hostile wildlife just steps outside your front door.
The man was the 25th victim of a bear attack in Akita this year, and it wouldn’t be long until the 26th. The very next day, an 82-year-old woman in the town of Daisen was walking down a street near her home shortly before 7 a.m., when a bear attacked her from behind, as shown in the thankfully-not-graphic video below.
This time the incident occurred in an even more developed area, not far from the Ugo Nagano train station in a neighborhood with numerous homes and shops. The woman sustained scratches to her face before the bear ran off, and a passing motorist took her to a nearby convenience store where she could take shelter and call for medical aid.
As for Akita’s 24th bear attack this year, that had just taken place on Monday, when a 70-something farmer in the Misato district of Akita City was working in his fields when a bear attacked him and bit his ankle.
The bears in the Gojome and Akita City incidents were both reported to be about one meter (3.3 feet) in length, and the victim of the Daisen attack says her ursine assailant was around 80 centimeters in length. Those sizes suggest that the bears may have been cubs, and residents of Gojome reported seeing a bear with a cub in the area recently. The victim of the Akita City incident also says that the bear that attacked him then ran off together with a mother bear.
The Gojome and Daisen attacks are particularly concerning because they fall outside the typical scenarios for bear attacks, humans encroaching on bears’ established territory deep in forestland or a sudden, unexpected encounter on a hiking trail when a startled bear’s fight-or-flight instincts kick in and it selects the first option. With the time of year when bears are ranging farther to bulk up for hibernation, being extra cautious when anywhere near possible bear habitats is advised, even outside of Akita Prefecture.
Source: Yahoo! Japan News/ABS Akita Hoso via Hachima Kiko, ABS Akita Hoso, TBS News Dig, Nagoya Broadcasting Network
Top image: Pakutaso
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