3 People Mauled to Death by Bears in Span of 1 Week, Including Man Who Was Decapitated By Charlotte Phillipp

Three people in Japan were killed by bears in the span of one week, including one man who was picking mushrooms in a forest and another man who was decapitated as he was mauled.

Police in the country’s Iwate Prefecture told AFP that a man said to be in his 70s was first reported missing after going scavenging in the woods. On Friday, Oct. 10, police said he was found dead.

“We suspect he was attacked by a bear based on scratch marks,” an official said of the elderly man’s death.

In a separate incident on Wednesday, police said they found a man dead, seemingly attacked by a bear in another part of the prefecture. Local outlet TV Iwate said the man’s head and torso had been separated.

Meanwhile, a 78-year-old man was found dead on Saturday in the Nagano Prefecture with multiple claw marks on his body. Police told AFP that while they suspect a bear attack is to blame, the man’s cause of death is still under investigation.

Japan is home to two species of bears: the Asian black bear and the Ussuri brown bear. Brown bears can weigh up to 1,210 lbs. and are mainly vegetarian, though they are known to kill any prey they encounter in their habitats. Asian black bears can weigh as much as 440 lbs. and are omnivorous, eating insects, fruit, nuts, small mammals, and birds.

Japan has seen an increase in its wild bear attacks and encounters in the past several years, due to factors such as climate change and a decline in population in certain regions.

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Between April and September this year, 103 people nationwide experienced injuries caused by bears, the country’s Environment Ministry reported, per AFP. The death toll since April has reached at least six, and with the past week’s three suspected bear attacks, the agency could report a record number of deaths.

One of the most public incidents involving a bear occurred last week, when one animal wandered into a supermarket and injured two people.

According to the Gunma Prefectural Government Office, the attack in a supermarket occurred around 7:30 p.m. local time on Tuesday, Oct. 7, in Numata City.

“A bear entered a supermarket, injuring one man, and another man was attacked and injured by the bear when he noticed the bear at the entrance and tried to escape,” officials said.

The two men sustained non-life-threatening injuries, Japanese broadcaster NHK reported, adding that the bear charged through the fish and sushi sections of the supermarket. 

There were about 40 people inside the supermarket when the attack happened, per NHK and news agency United Press International. 

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“It looked to me as if the bear was confused. It was in the store for 10 to 15 minutes. It didn’t look like it was foraging,” recalled a store manager, the news agency reported, citing Japan Wire.

The bear ran away as customers were evacuating, CNN reported.

Additionally, in August, a body was found on a mountain in the prefecture of Hokkaido belonging to a missing hiker who was attacked by a brown bear.