Bear Released Deep in the Mountains Comes Back in Just 3 Days, Then Euthanized — 5ch: ‘Kuma’s Back!’ (echoing the site’s classic door-crashing “Kuma” meme)

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The story

A Japanese black bear that was captured at Kobo-yama Park in Hadano City, Kanagawa Prefecture, and relocated deep into the mountains of Tanzawa came back to that very same park just three days later. On October 31, the city confirmed the animal’s identity by its ear tag, recaptured the same bear in a trap, and — after consulting with the prefecture — had it euthanized. “Okuyama hōjū” (releasing captured bears deep in the mountains) has long been used as a way to return bears to the wild without killing them, but this time it failed to stop the bear from resettling. On 5ch, opinions split between doubts about how effective such releases really are, suggestions that the decision to cull is simply being pushed onto local governments, and broader arguments over how a bear’s life should be weighed.

A Japanese black bear that was captured at Kobo-yama Park in Hadano City, Kanagawa Prefecture, and released deep in the mountains of Tanzawa returned to Kobo-yama just three days later. On October 31, the city recaptured the same bear in a trap inside the park and, after consulting with the prefecture, euthanized it. What does this reveal about the challenges of releasing bears deep into the mountains?

(details omitted)

■ Bear returns just 3 days later, city later euthanizes it

Source: news.yahoo.co.jp / Original article here

What people said

13AnonymousNov 1, 2026 11:23
17AnonymousNov 1, 2026 11:28
If it's basically "coming home," doesn't that mean it'll just keep coming back no matter how many times you release it?
89AnonymousNov 1, 2026 12:31
Re: #17
Just release it on some remote island, problem solved.

As long as it's too far for it to swim back, that is.
42AnonymousNov 1, 2026 11:49
A case that satisfied both the "don't kill it"
crowd and the
"cull it"
crowd
at the same time.

Guess this is how you do it.
47AnonymousNov 1, 2026 11:53
Re: #42
"Released it" — one-handed, from somewhere up high.
102AnonymousNov 1, 2026 12:38
Re: #42
It set a fine example — and there won't be a second time.
69AnonymousNov 1, 2026 12:17
Don't cull the bear how scared it must've been with a human pointing a gun at it I can't stop crying poor little bear the bear did nothing wrong it's the humans who cornered it it even eats invasive species like American crayfish and largemouth bass if we just gather acorns and scatter them we could be friends with the bear
Missing my bear-chan — a 31-year-old woman from Kyushu 🐻
77AnonymousNov 1, 2026 12:19
Re: #69
>the bear did nothing wrong
There's no "right" or "wrong" when it comes to a pest animal.
73AnonymousNov 1, 2026 12:18
You guys hibernate year-round anyway.
113AnonymousNov 1, 2026 12:52
Re: #73
Yep. This year I only managed to go outside for a total of 4 months.
87AnonymousNov 1, 2026 12:30
|┃三     ∩___∩
    |┃      | ノ      ヽ
    |┃ ≡   /  ●   ● |   Here comes that bear again!
____.|ミ\___|    ( _●_)  ミ
    |┃=___    |∪|   \
    |┃ ≡  /    ヽノ  人 \ *slides door open* (riffing on 5ch's classic door-crashing "Kuma" AA character)
195AnonymousNov 1, 2026 17:48
Re: #87
>After consulting with the prefecture, it was euthanized.
Since it was "euthanized," I guess even bear-lovers can smile about it (a play on "dog-lovers," aiken-ka)?

Right?
lol
91AnonymousNov 1, 2026 12:31
The bears that didn't come back probably just got killed by stronger bears or starved to death, no?
After all, they were driven out in the first place because they had no place left in the mountains.
94AnonymousNov 1, 2026 12:33
Re: #91
If stronger bears were really driving others out, you'd expect way more bears showing up and way more sightings.
There's hardly any, so this one probably just wandered in by chance.
106AnonymousNov 1, 2026 12:41
Just make a dedicated "Bear Country" somewhere.
Wall it in all around.
110AnonymousNov 1, 2026 12:50
Re: #106
Bear Country = Japan.
It'd honestly be quicker to just wall off Chiba Prefecture, the one place with zero bears.
136AnonymousNov 1, 2026 14:11
There was no need to cull it, lol.

And yet if a person died, nobody would take responsibility anyway — real easygoing, huh, lol.
139AnonymousNov 1, 2026 14:18
Re: #136
They're just making up excuses to dump the responsibility on some other municipality.
140AnonymousNov 1, 2026 14:21
Now that I think about it, you almost never hear about Asiatic black bears actually attacking kids.
149AnonymousNov 1, 2026 14:31
Re: #140
There was one. I think it was last year — a small Asiatic black bear wandered in, spotted some kids heading out after school, and came charging straight at them.

A teacher who was seeing the kids off heard them yell "Bear! Bear!", and the door was shut the instant the kids ran back inside.
At that point the bear and the school building were maybe 3 meters apart.

I only saw it on a news program so I don't have a text source, and I don't even remember where it happened.
I don't remember what happened to the bear afterward either.

Given how the kids and the bear were positioned, and that the kids noticed it fast, nobody got hurt — I think the footage was from a security camera?
It was clearly targeting the kids.
150AnonymousNov 1, 2026 14:31
Poor little bear (´;ω;`) *waterworks*
151AnonymousNov 1, 2026 14:32
Re: #150
There's no "poor thing" about a pest animal.
161AnonymousNov 1, 2026 14:54
Re: #1
I am absolutely opposed to the slaughter of wildlife!
Why is it suddenly okay to kill it just because it's the second time?!
Just keep releasing it — twice, three times, ten times, twenty times, however many it takes!
It's a life! Nobody has the right to take it!
If there's a way to avoid taking a life, you should release it, release it, and keep releasing it, no matter what!
167AnonymousNov 1, 2026 15:21
Re: #161
"Life" doesn't come into it when it's a pest animal.
165AnonymousNov 1, 2026 15:01
I searched to see if there was a paper on this and this is what came up, lol.
Guess nothing's changed in 20 years…

ttps://libmopac.bioindustry.nodai.ac.jp/webopac/BB10065037

Title and statement of responsibility: Kuma wa Nemurenai: Hito o Osou Ijō Kōdō no Nazo ga Toketa! ("Bears Can't Sleep: The Mystery of the Abnormal Behavior That Makes Them Attack Humans, Solved!") / by Kazuhiko Yoneda
KUMA WA NEMURENAI: HITO O OSOU IJŌ KŌDŌ NO NAZO GA TOKETA
Publication/distribution: Tokyo: Tokyo Shimbun Shuppankyoku, 2008.7

Summary
In 2006 alone, the number of Asiatic black bears culled after increasingly appearing near human settlements was officially over 4,000 — and that's just the confirmed figure.
A leading researcher on Asiatic black bears unravels the mystery behind their abnormal behavior and makes the case for how humans and wildlife can coexist.
166AnonymousNov 1, 2026 15:09
Re: #165
One look at the publisher and there's really nothing more to say. (Tokyo Shimbun has a reputation among posters here for a particular editorial slant)
173AnonymousNov 1, 2026 16:01
What exactly is "euthanasia culling" (anraku-satsu)?
Is it like that thing with iaido swordmasters where the target doesn't even realize they've been cut?
175AnonymousNov 1, 2026 16:06
Re: #173
They give it a heavy dose of anesthetic so it never wakes up.
Apparently CO2 gas causes suffering.
181AnonymousNov 1, 2026 16:36
For what it's worth, they did fit it with a GPS tracker before releasing it. Good practice for dealing with stalkers.
193AnonymousNov 1, 2026 17:25
Re: #181
What they fitted was just a basic radio transmitter.
GPS units need recharging or they won't last long.
And a stalker is obligated to recharge their own battery.
185AnonymousNov 1, 2026 17:03
Protect the bear's human rights!
188AnonymousNov 1, 2026 17:13
Re: #185
It's a bear's rights (kenri), so it should be "Bear Fist" (kuma-ken) — same "ken" sound as in "rights." (a pun on 拳, "fist")

Background and Key Points of This Debate

“Okuyama hōjū” — releasing a bear found near human settlements back deep into the mountains instead of killing it — has been adopted in various parts of Japan, but the problem of “learned” bears that make their way back to the same spot has long been recognized. In this case, experts have pointed out that the bear may have been returning not by accident, but to a spot it remembered as a place to den up for the winter — essentially coming “home” to hibernate. On the thread, opinions clashed between those who argued releases should simply be repeated no matter how many times it takes, and those who argued culling should happen quickly before anyone gets hurt. Under the Ministry of the Environment’s guidelines, whether a bear has become an “urban bear” — one that has lost its wariness of people and settled near inhabited areas — is a key factor in deciding whether to cull it, and the article touches on whether this particular bear met that definition. It’s easy to overlook, amid all the emotional back-and-forth, that this classification standard is actually what’s driving the debate.

*This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (News Express+) thread “Bear Returns Just 3 Days After Being Released Deep in the Mountains, Then Euthanized — Experts Say It May Have Been Coming ‘Home’ to Hibernate.”

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