Tuesday February 14, 2012

JAPAN NEWS AND DISCUSSION

cucashopboy's past comments

0

cucashopboyJul. 20, 2009 - 11:21AM JST

Sounds like a wonderful nature loving thing to do but if asiatic black bears are anything like the bears in the US I sincerely hope the guide is packing a 12g loaded with alternating slugs and 00 buck. Too often people forget that these beautiful creatures can also be lethal creatures and their behavior can be unpredictable at times. Hope no one gets injured or killed.

From what I understand of bears in Japan, they tend to avoid contact with humans. Attacks from bears in Japan are sufficiently rare to be news when they occur.

At a matter of fact, in 2007 I participated in one of the bear-watching trips that the article featured. We spent half the first day climbing up a well-used trail to a popular mountain lodge in the Kita Alps, and just like any other group of hikers, we had a picnic on the way up - hope that dispels the image of bear lovers sitting somewhere remote with a picnic hamper waiting for Yogi to turn up! The mountain lodge was on a ridge. After a couple of hours relaxing there, we set out mid-afternoon when fewer hikers are generally around, and followed a path along a less well used ridge up to a point where the guide thought we had a good chance of seeing a bear. Those of you who have walked in the Kita Alps will know that ridge walks are above the treeline and have excellent views all the way; there was absolutely no possibility of accidentally running into a bear, the situation that I've heard is the most likely to prompt aggressive behaviour. After spending a while training binoculars on the valley a few hundred metres below we were able to spot a bear wandering up the valley, which for me was a truly awesome sight. At no point during the trip did I feel that we were taking any greater risk than a group of hikers doing a two day walk in the mountains. No need for guns!

Posted in: Bear-viewing hikes in Japan Alps