A bear described by local authorities as “extremely intelligent” remains at large in northern Japan after attacking four people in the city of Sapporo. The bear, believed to be a male adult of around 200 kilogrammes, has evaded capture since the first incident on Thursday morning.
The attacks occurred in a residential area near the Maruyama district, a densely wooded part of the city. The bear first injured a woman in her 60s as she walked her dog. Within hours, it attacked a man in his 40s and a university student, both sustaining severe but non-life-threatening injuries. A fourth victim, a man in his 70s, was mauled while attempting to photograph the animal. All four were hospitalised.
Hokkaido prefectural police have warned residents to remain indoors as a team of hunters and wildlife officers attempt to locate the bear. However, the animal has repeatedly outmanoeuvred capture efforts. It has been spotted several times near schools and homes, moving quickly between green corridors and avoiding traps. One officer described the bear as showing “unusual cunning” in its ability to evade patrols.
The bear is believed to have entered the urban area from the surrounding mountains, driven by food scarcity in its natural habitat. This autumn has seen a poor crop of berries and acorns, staple foods for bears in Hokkaido, leading to an increase in human-wildlife encounters. Experts say that bears are now more likely to venture into towns in search of food, a phenomenon that has grown more common in recent years due to climate change and habitat encroachment.
The situation has drawn international attention, with some wildlife experts expressing concern that the bear’s intelligence may make it more dangerous. “A bear that learns to avoid hunters and traps is a bear that poses an ongoing threat,” said Dr Kenji Yamamoto, a wildlife biologist at Hokkaido University. “It has effectively been conditioned to see humans as non-threatening obstacles to food sources. This is a worrying development.”
Local authorities have set up additional traps and are using drones equipped with thermal imaging to track the bear. However, the dense woodland in parts of the city makes aerial surveillance difficult. The bear is known to rest during the day in thick undergrowth, becoming active at night. Police have closed several parks and advised residents not to go out after dark.
The incident is the most serious bear attack in the region in recent memory. Hokkaido, Japan’s northernmost island, has around 20,000 brown bears, but attacks on humans remain rare. The last fatal attack was in 2019, when a bear killed a man in the town of Teshikaga. However, as the bear population expands and urban areas spread, encounters are expected to rise.
The bear remains at large as of late Friday. The authorities have not yet issued an explicit order to shoot the animal on sight, but they have stated that they will take “necessary measures” to ensure public safety. The bear’s fate may pivot on its next move: if it continues to avoid capture, a decision to euthanise it becomes more likely. Environmental groups have called for a live capture and relocation, but some officials argue that the bear’s behaviour makes it too dangerous to release into the wild.
