くまもりNews

昨年末、みなさんにご紹介しそびれていましたが、以下、ジャパンタイムズデジタル版2017年11月27日記事です。

 

（大意和訳）

秋田で、クマの目撃増加　人間側に原因も

 

秋田の田舎に住む42歳の主婦は、「クマが家の近くにいるなんて思えないのですが・・・」と、近くのコンビニまで慎重に歩いて行く。

生まれも育ちも秋田だが、山以外の所でクマと遭遇した話はこれまでほとんど聞いたことがない。それが今、一般的になってきた。

この夫妻は、毎朝12歳の娘を中学校に送って行く。

昨春、秋田県第２の都市である横手市で、学校から20メートルのところにツキノワグマが現れたのだ。

 

秋田県におけるクマの目撃数が急増し、それまで年間200頭～300頭程度だった有害駆除数が、2016年には468頭となった。

1979年～2015年までの秋田での熊による死亡事故はわずか8件だったが、2016年～2017年には5件発生した。

注釈（2016年、秋田県鹿角市でタケノコ採りに山に入った4名がクマによって死亡する事故が起きた。2017年には、秋田県仙北市でタケノコ採りに山に入った1名がクマによって死亡する事故が起きた。）

 

●秋田県行政は、2015年はブナの実りが良て多くの子グマが生まれたため、2016年はブナ不足となり、食料を求めてクマたちが山から出て来たことによって起きた事件だと説明している。

 

●しかし、日本ツキノワグマ研究所所長の所長である米田一彦氏は、長きにわたって山と集落を分けてきた里山が崩壊したことに要因があるという。

20世紀後半、日本は急速に経済発展し、猛烈な都市化が進んだ。

「以前は薪として絶えず伐られていた里山林が、今や伐る人もいなくなり、成長して大きくなっている。野生動物と人の緩衝帯であった里山が失われた。里では過疎化高齢化が進み、農園や果樹園を管理する人もいなくなった。こうしたなか、クマたちが山から里に移動して定住した」と、米田は言う。

 

●日本熊森協会の森山まり子会長は、過疎化高齢化も関係あるが、根本原因は、かつて山のなかにあふれるほどあった野生動物たちの食料が激減していることだと指摘する。

森山は、地球規模で森林が劣化してきており、木々の成長が弱くなって葉量や実の量が減っていることを示す研究を挙げた。

（人工林、開発）、地球温暖化、酸性雨、大気汚染など、全て、人間活動が引き起こしたことだ。

2016年に秋田の山を旅した人から、ナラ枯れがすごかったという報告を受けているという。

最近の日本人は、ほとんどが都市に住み、山に入らなくなっている。

そのため、人々は、森の中のクマたちの食料（植物・昆虫）がなくなっていることに気づいていない。

もう一度、豊かな森を再生させていかない限り、クマ問題は解決しないと彼女は言う。

 

冒頭の主婦は、いつか本物の野生グマを見たいと言う。

主婦は、「私だって死にたくはないですよ。、、、でも、クマってかわいいじゃないですか。」という。

ご主人も、「私だったら、クマに会って最初にやってしまうのは、携帯を取り出して写真を撮ることでしょうね。」と、同意する。

 

 

As Akita deals with surge in bear sightings, some point to a human cause

 

AKITA – Far from Tokyo’s bright lights and noisy streets Kaori Kawashima walks cautiously on her way to the nearest convenience store in rural Akita Prefecture, where danger might be lurking in the shadows.

“I don’t think bears come close to where I live, but there’s no way to be sure,” the 42-year-old housewife says.

 

Together with her husband, they take no chances. Every morning they drive their 12-year-old daughter to junior high — breaking the age-old norm that children should walk to school.

And they’re not alone. This past spring, a black bear was spotted just 20 meters from a high school in Yokote, the second-largest city in the prefecture. Kawashima has lived her whole life in Akita, but stories of bear encounters outside the mountains used to be few and far between. Now they are becoming common.

Sightings exploded in 2016, shooting to 468 from just a couple of hundred in previous years, according to the Akita Prefectural Government. From 1979 to 2015, only eight deaths from bear attacks were reported in Akita. Since then there have been five.

 

Behind the headlines, experts say, is a silent transformation in the countryside that is setting the stage for greater numbers of wildlife encounters.

When a string of bear attacks caused a national stir last year, residents hoped it was just an anomaly and that things would soon return to normal.

 

 

●The official explanation was that the supply of beech nuts in 2015 that helped more cubs survive was followed by a shortage last year, which led them down from the mountains in search of food.

 

 

●But Kazuhiko Maita, chairman of the Hiroshima-based nonprofit Institute for Asian Black Bear Research and Preservation, says a more long-term factor is at work: the disappearing satoyama, a term referring to traditional rural landscapes of carefully maintained forests and farmland.

 

Part of Japan’s rapid economic development in the late 20th century involved an aggressive urbanization that changed it from a principally rural country to one of the most urban populations in the world. Prefectures far from major cities began to wither, but on a rural level, the satoyama all but vanished.

 

“The buffer zone has disappeared,” Maita said. When forests previously chopped down for firewood grew back, and farms and fruit trees were left unmanaged, the bears left the mountains and moved in to stay, he explained.

 

Predominantly rural Akita has the fastest-shrinking population in Japan. This year, the prefectural government reported that it had dipped below 1 million for the first time since 1930, with over a third of its residents aged 65 or older. But it’s not alone.

 

Across Japan, wildlife is becoming a menace in places it never was before.

Akita, known for the bear-hunting dogs that carry its name, has always had bears around, but experts warn of boars and deer overrunning the countryside as the human activities that once held them back — such as hunting — fade due to depopulation.

 

 

In Akita, depopulation is only one part of the equation. The rest simply has to do with the subsequent increase in hunger, another expert said.

 

●“The depopulation of rural villages is connected, but it’s not the root cause,” said Mariko Moriyama, president of the nongovernmental organization Japan Bear and Forest Society.

“The root cause is that food has disappeared from the mountains.”

Moriyama points to research showing that trees have been growing weaker across the world, with a dramatic decrease in leaves and fruit.

 

The culprit, she said, is us.

 

“Global warming, acid rain, air pollution — all caused by human activities,” she said. In Japan, the effects have been particularly noticeable with the Mongolian oak (mizunara).

 

 

For years, Moriyama has been tracking the progress of Japanese oak wilt, a fungal disease brought on by climate change, as it creeps northward into southern Akita. Busy with their lives in the city, newly urbanized Japanese are no longer going up into the mountains like they used to. “They don’t realize how devastated it has become.”

 

This is particularly damaging for Akita’s black bears.

“They rely on mizunara, not beech,” for nourishment, she said.

 

With the mountains bare of food, no matter how skittish they are, returning to the woods might not be an option for these animals. “If nothing is done to help the mountains, the bear attacks will continue.”

 

 

Today, officials put the number of bears in the prefecture at roughly 1,000, but the primary data derive from reports about encounters — a statistic likely to get warped as sightings become more commonplace.

 

Here, wild mountain vegetables have been a spring delicacy for as long as anyone can remember.

 

Perhaps that is why residents remain eager to ignore the figurative and literal signs telling them times have changed. This has led the police to close off mountain trails and patrol popular entry points instead.

Others think back to when they were young, when the matagi (traditional bear hunters) would supply the wild animals’ tough and gamey meat to restaurants and school cafeterias. Today, the ranks of the matagi are aging and dwindling, and the meat is shunned even by residents as it can be poisonous if not properly cooked.

 

 

Meanwhile, Kaori Kawashima stays at home, getting her meat and vegetables from the supermarket. Perhaps attracted by Kumamoto Prefecture’s popular bear mascot Kumamon or Winnie the Pooh, she still hopes someday to see a real live wild bear in the flesh — as long as it’s from the safety of her car.

She laughs, saying: “I don’t want to die, but … they seem cute, don’t they?”

Her husband, Kazunori, agrees. “My first impulse would be to take my phone out and snap a picture.”