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.

Attack description

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.