TOKYO: Bears have killed a record number of people in Japan this year, the environment ministry said, just as another possible victim was reported missing on Thursday.
Experts say that warmer weather is also affecting the hibernation patterns of the animals, which in the case of brown bears can weigh half a tonne and outrun a human.
The new total of seven deaths in the current fiscal year "is the largest toll since 2006, when statistics started", an environment ministry official said.
It surpassed the previous high of five human fatalities recorded in the 2023-24 fiscal year, the official said on condition of anonymity.
More than 100 other people have been left with injuries, including bites and deep gashes from the bears' sharp claws.
The record was reached following confirmation that a man in his 70s found dead on October 8 in the northern Iwate region had been killed by a bear.
Japanese broadcaster TV Iwate said the man's head and torso had been separated.
The body of another man in his 70s, also in Iwate, was found just two days later in a forest where he had been picking mushrooms.
A few days earlier, the body of a 78-year-old man with multiple claw marks was recovered in the central prefecture of Nagano. However, the cause of death was yet to be confirmed in either of those last two cases.
A worker at a hot spring resort in Kitakami, also in Iwate, was also reported missing on Thursday. Local media said that a search team had found what appeared to be human blood.
Five more people were reported injured in incidents in Akita and Fukushima prefectures, Fuji Television network reported. - AFP
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