TOKYO \u2013 An \u201cextremely intelligent\u201d bear that injured four people in northern Japan remains at large as at June 5, after apparently unlatching a window while evading capture and turning on a water tap, officials said.<\/p>\n
A record 13 people were killed by bears in Japan in 2025, and there has been a jump in sightings as the animals emerge hungry from hibernation.<\/p>\n
After attacking four people at two factories in Fukushima on <\/a>June 2<\/a>, the bear took shelter inside one of the buildings, local media reported.<\/p>\n It dodged capture despite efforts by hunters and responders equipped with traps and anaesthetic guns, and escaped late on June 3.<\/p>\n The bear remains at large as at the morning of June 5, a Fukushima official told AFP.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Fukushima city mayor Yuki Baba told reporters on June 4 that evidence suggested the animal \u201cunlocked the window on its own\u201d to flee, adding that claw marks had been found near the exit.<\/p>\n It is also believed the bear \u201cturned on the water tap\u201d to drink, he added, describing it as \u201cextremely intelligent\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cWith the cooperation of hunters, police and firefighters, I believe we took all possible measures available to us\u201d to catch it, Baba said.<\/p>\n \u201cThat we failed to achieve our goal despite our best efforts is extremely regrettable,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n In the last fiscal year to March, bear sightings nationwide topped 50,000, more than double the previous record set two years earlier, according to official data.<\/p>\n The animals were seen entering homes, roaming near schools and rampaging through supermarkets and hot spring resorts on an almost daily basis.<\/p>\n Bears are thriving thanks in part to an abundance of food \u2013 including acorns, deer and boars \u2013 under the influence of a warming climate, experts say. AFP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TOKYO \u2013 An \u201cextremely intelligent\u201d bear that injured four people in northern Japan remains at large as at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":716431,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[64,63,128,338],"class_list":["post-716430","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-science","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/716430","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=716430"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/716430\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/716431"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=716430"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=716430"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=716430"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}