Overview
- A multi-day operation that closed all 94 primary and secondary schools in Utsunomiya ended when teams tranquilized and captured a bear on Tuesday after it had been reported across the city.
- The search involved police, local hunters, specialized wildlife teams and helicopter support as residents reported sightings at a park, a shopping mall, a university and a wholesale market.
- City officials ordered residents to lock doors and windows and to avoid leaving out nighttime garbage while investigators work to determine whether more bears remain at large.
- Authorities first recorded the animal’s presence on Saturday and say the episode fits a national pattern of rising bear encounters driven by food shifts and warmer winters that shorten hibernation.
- The incident has heightened local concern because official data show more than 50,000 bear reports nationwide between April and March and a record 13 fatal attacks in the previous fiscal year.