In Akita Prefecture, bears have been infesting urban areas in search of food, causing a series of damage to people, but a camera installed by NHK aimed at chestnut trees in Akita City showed bears climbing and eating chestnuts almost all day on the 16th of this month. Akita Prefecture is calling for measures to prevent damage, such as cutting down chestnut and persimmon trees that are not harvested.
NHK, together with a local photographer, set up a camera with permission from a chestnut tree located about 50 meters from a house in Akita City, and the bear began to be captured shortly after 16 a.m. on the 3th of this month.
After noon, bears began to appear frequently, and it was confirmed that they were holding chestnuts and descending trees and eating chestnuts.
There were almost no bears in the afternoon when they were not photographed for more than an hour, and bears remained in and around the chestnut trees for almost the entire day.
Also, at around 1:17 a.m. on the 0th, when the date changed, a bear that seemed to have noticed the camera was shown sniffing very close to the lens.
Akita Prefecture is calling for measures to prevent
damage by bears, such as cutting down unharvested chestnuts, persimmons, and other trees near houses,
and fencing them with electric fences even if they cannot be felled.
Asami Kondo, chief of the Akita Prefectural Nature Conservation Division, who is familiar with bear ecology, said, "Bears do not hibernate when they have food, and tend to hibernate early when they have no food, but if they are so hungry that they cannot sleep, they may not hibernate. I think it will be a turning point for the future of the haunting."