In Japan, bears are dying of hunger because there is a lack of salmon in the rivers
Photo: Reproduction/The Guardian
Pictures taken from a tourist boat in Japan Last week they showed a carry Skinny man knocks over stones and digs through algae looking for food. The video drew attention to the predation crisis the species is experiencing on the eastern coast of the Shiretoko Peninsula, where there are no longer any salmon to feed the bears. The information comes from the Asahi Shimbun portal.
The region that is UNESCO World Natural Heritage, has one of the densest brown bear populations in the world, with around 500 animals of this species living there. Eating pink salmon is one of the bears’ main food sources, especially between August and October, during the spawning season.
This year, bears that once waited in the rivers of Hokkaido for pink salmon to hatch are having to head out to sea in search of food. “Some bears are very emaciated and are having a hard time,” Katsuya Noda, who is operating the cruise, told Asahi Shimbun. “There are no fish in the rivers, just like last year.”
One explanation for this is the increase in sea water temperature. Because the water is warmer than normal, salmon cannot spawn. Many of them also die as a result of the temperatures. The brown bears’ situation is exacerbated by the low harvest of fruits and seeds in the region.
“This year, not only was there salmon, but acorns also had a poor harvest,” Masami Yamanaka, a researcher at the Shiretoko Nature Foundation, told Asahi. “It is estimated that 70 to 80 percent of the young born this year are dead. It’s a really serious situation.”
In parallel, cities in the region have seen more brown bears in urban environments. “In recent years, the number of incidents of this type has been around 4 to 8 (episodes), but this year it is known that there is a lack of food for brown bears and this is believed to be related to the increase in brown bear numbers of them in urban areas,” said a report by the Shiretoko Nature Foundation.
In 2023, the foundation recorded the highest number of sightings of the animal within cities since 2018. Since March, bears have been sighted at least once a month, with the exception of May, with an increase since August that coincided with the period of scarcity of fish in the rivers.