Status of Japanese Black Bear

STATUSOF JAPANESEBLACK BEAR TOSHIHIROHAZUMI, Wildlife Management Office, Inc., 1-8-18 TeraodaiTama-ku, Kawasaki 214, Japan Abstract.This reportreviews the statusof Japaneseblack bear (Selenarctos thibetanus japonicus), and proposes a conservationplan for this species. Ten thousandblack bears are estimatedto live in Japanas estimatedby distributionof dataand densityestimates of 0.11-0.18 bears/km2.Annual harvest is morethan 2,000. Morethan 1,000 bears are killed as pestson plantationsfor depredations on agriculturalproducts and otherbear-human conflicts throughout the activebear season. The governmentdoes not manageblack bears on the biologicalbasis of huntingseasons, numbers, sex, or age at harvest. Highcommercial value of gallbladderthreatens Japanese bears as in otherAsian countries. Bearhabitat was diminishedby timbercutting for resourcesduring the WorldWar II period. (Therapid economic growth of Japanhas been inadvertentlyconsuming bear habitatall over the world.) For the conservationof bears, socialeducation is necessaryalong with proper managementof huntingand habitat on a biologicalbasis. Int. Conf. Bear Res. and Manage.9(1):145-148 In Japan the government has no approachto legally can be generally separated into the northeasternhigh conserve wildlife; there is no governmentsystem in the snow area and the southwesternlow snow area. Environment Agency to manage bears. Increasing Black bears use vegetation from the hills near wildlife damages to human products requirethat a new villages to the alpine zone more than 3,000 m in policy be developed. altitude. Their food habits are omnivorous but mainly Since the 1970s, biologists have demonstratedthe herbivorous. They eat grasses, sedges, herbs, and buds critical situationof the Japaneseblack bear. Excessive in spring; berries and nuts in summer and fall. The numbers of nuisance kills as pest animals and careless acorns of Fagus, Quercus, and Castanea are key food timber cutting heightens the sense of crisis. The high in the important pre-denning season (Takada 1983, commercial value of bear parts threaten Japan's bear Nizaki et al. 1983, Hazumi and Maruyama 1987). (Milliken 1985). At the same time, the reports by Their weight is 60-120 kg in adult males and 40-100 kg IUCN/SSC (Servheen 1990) and TRAFFICUSA (Mills in adult females. Body length is 120-140 cm. The and Servheen 1991) indicate that Japan is responsible characteristicfeeding behavior of this small bear is to for a significant part of the worldwide bear trade. climb a tree and to eat fruits and buds. The ledges of The Environment Agency has researched bear broken oak branches like nests, called "Enza" are population biology since 1980. Informationfrom the conspicuous feeding signs in fall. The same behavior prefectures has been developed on bear damages, is reportedin Asiatic black bears in China (Schaller et harvest, and the size of populations. I worked on some al. 1989). They also use certain insects and carcasses of these projects and on the threatenedbear project of of wild animals and livestock opportunistically. The WWF Japan, 1988-90 (In Press). In this report, I bone parts and claws of a bear cub were found in the review the status of Japanese black bear on biology, stomach contents of an adult male bear (Yamagata harvest, habitat and bear use; define the problems; and prefecture 1982, Hazumi unpubl. data). Cannibalism propose a conservationplan for this endangeredspecies. may occur in this species as with the American black bear (LeCount 1987). In the last 15 years, some radio-trackingresearch has BIOLOGY examined this species. Hazumi and Maruyama (1986 Japan is a narrow, long country that consists of 4 and 1987) worked in Nikko. Maita (1990) tracked 19 major islands with an area of about 370,000 km2. The bears at Mt. Taiheizan in northeastern high snow steep mountainous areas occupy 68% of the land. habitat. Their range size is 50 km2 (n = 7) in males Human populations are concentratedin the remaining and 30 km2 (n = 12) in females. Hazumi (unpubl. 32%. Japanese black bears live on 3 major islands, data) has been tracking 11 bears of Tanzawa, an Honshu, Shikoku and Kyushu. The latter2 islandsmay isolated population in southwesternlow snow habitat. have endangered or extinct populations. Another bear Their range size measured2 to 3 times as large as that species, brown bear (Ursus arctos yezoensis), dominates of the northeasternpopulation. The difference may be the northernmostHokkaido island, and the species do caused by decreasing capacity of habitat. Expanding not overlap. The geographical placement of Japan, coniferous plantations separate the natural forest into steep topography, seasonal winds from the continent, small patches. and varied warm and cold ocean currents, make for Denning period is 5 or 6 months between November diverse climates and vegetation in Japan. Bear habitat and April. Black bears use a hole in tree, under rocks, 146 Int. Conf.Bear Res. and Manage.9(1) 1994 or the groundas den sites. Theydo not dig the ground beardamages. activelylike brownbears. Japaneseblack bears damage artificialconiferous Steep topographyand dense sasa bambooprevent plantationsby strippingthe bark from trees (Azuma and researchingbears in theirhabitat. The 6 prefecturesof Torii 1980, Furubayashiet al. 1980, Watanabe1980). the northeasterndistrict counted the numberof bearsin This is a seriousproblem in southwesternbear habitat post-denningseason. In springmuch of the snow is wherethe artificialforest occupies a largepercentage of firmenough to walkon makingsearches for bearseasy. thehabitat (40-60%). Since 1970many box-traps have Thedensity is estimatedat 0.11-0.18 bears/km2in these beenset in the bearhabitat, and trapping and killing of areas. Direct countsare impossiblein the low snow trappedbears has continuedthrough the active bear areas of the southwesternareas. Capture-recapture season. On the islandsof Kyushuand Shikoku, where methodswere examinedwith radio-markingstudies in forestharvest and conversionhas been extensive,the Tanzawa. However,the dataindicate that the density bear populationhas been reducedto endangeredsize. of the southwesternpopulation is lower than other In somedistricts of Honshu,excessive control of bears areas. From all these data, 10,000 black bears are as timberpests has diminishedtheir distribution (Torii estimatedto live in Japan(Black Bear Management 1978, Shibataand Kofune 1984). committeeof EnvironmentAgency of Japan). Black bears damageagriculture, beekeeping, fish- farms,livestock, and sometimes human beings. These damages usually occur from late summer to fall. HARVEST Physicalprotection like electricfence is rarelyused. The annualharvest of black bears is more than Bearsare killedby shooting,snaring, and trappingas 2,000, and half of this kill is nuisancekills as pest pests. There is no regard for the impact on the animals(Table 1). Poachingkills areadditional to this populationfrom such harvest. Recently,many bears number. have appearedin human areas. Excessive timber Huntingseason is usuallyset from 15 Novemberto cuttingand the fluctuationof mastcrops diminished the 15 February. Huntershunt pre-denningbears with capacityof bearhabitat. The carelessharvest of bears dogs, and they searchfor bears in den sites that are for pest controlseriously threatens each population. used by generationsof bears. In northeasternhigh snow areas, bear huntingis traditionallyduring the post-denningseason because the hunters can walk easily HABITAT on hardsnow, see bears, and get biggergall bladders Artificialtree plantationsoccupy 40% of the forest thanthe other seasons. The springhunt is conductedas for the temperateand humid climate. Considerationsof a prophylacticcontrol for decreasingthe summer-fall bear habitatin Japan must employ the history of forestry. Table 1. Annual harvest of Japanese black bears Figure 1 indicatesthe changes of timbercutting. (Environment Agency). Forestrydisturbances of bear habitatstarted in the 1940s. DuringWorld War II, 1939-1945,the forest Year Hunting Pestcontrol Total was overcutto supplywar-time needs. Thoughthe 1980 831 1,035 1,866 ForestAgency planted in post-warperiods, Japan has since neededa large volume of timberresources for 1981 1,300 1,410 2,710 buildingmaterials and pulpwood. The government 1982 1,016 1,106 2,122 decidedto cut the interiorforest and startedto import 1983 863 1,145 2,008 inexpensivetimber from foreign countries. The rateof from 86% in 45% in 1984 869 860 1,729 self-supplyhas decreased 1960, 1970, to 30% in 1980. The inadequatemanagement 923 1985 1,355 2,278 resultedin plantationwaste. The ForestryAgency has 1986 953 1,625 2,578 a deficitof morethan 15 billiondollars due to failure 1987 1,140 822 1,962 of management.Simultaneously, resort developments for and road developingare 1988 972 1,291 2,263 skiing, golfing, housing, convertingforests to nonforestedareas. 1989 761 1,266 2,027 Because forestry has historicallydiminished the Average 962.8 1,191.5 2,154.3 capacityof bearhabitat and fragmentedit, manybears appearin humanareas and are killed as pests. The STATUSOF JAPANESEBLACK BEAR * Hazumi 147 million.... m3 2.483 In this age of high economicgrowth, professional f' 2,324 hunting has decreasedand changed to recreational 2,147/\ hunting. Theold admonitionto limitexcessive hunting rs2,043\ 20 has disappeared. Bear gallbladderhas the highest commercialvalue of all Japanesewildlife products. 1,828 The overseasdemand for beargall is the reasonfor the 1,549 1,534 15 IX D1 /,3 high harvest(2,000-3,000 bears each year in

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