Over 2,000 Brown Bears Captured in Hokkaido in Fiscal 2025 to Date; Number Breaks Record of 1,804 Set in Fiscal 2023

The Yomiuri Shimbun

14:57 JST, February 26, 2026

SAPPORO — The preliminary number of brown bears captured in Hokkaido from April 2025 to January 2026 — the first 10 months of fiscal 2025 — reached a record 2,013, the Hokkaido prefectural government announced on Wednesday.

This is the first time the capture number has surpassed 2,000 within a single year. The increase is believed to have been caused by a poor crop of acorns, which caused many bears to wander into urban areas in search of food.

According to the announcement, the number of brown bears captured in the first 10 months of fiscal 2025 was almost twice as much as the number caught during the entirety of fiscal 2024, when it hit just 1,026. It also beat the previous record of 1,804 set in fiscal 2023. Additionally, the current number is a preliminary figure, which means it is the total number of bears captured using hunting rifles or traps with permission from the prefecture. The final figure is expected to rise even higher because it will include the number of hunted bears and bears captured with permission from the central government.

According to the prefecture’s brown bear task force, there were many bear attacks against people last year, such as the case of a newspaper delivery man attacked and killed by a brown bear in the town of Fukushima in the prefecture in July.