If you haven’t heard, Japan has been dealing with a massive bear problem. Bears, pushed out of shrinking habitats and food chains disrupted by climate change, are now roaming city streets and breaking into buildings looking for a meal. To fight back, robotic wolves have been deployed as oversized anti-bear scarecrows that are selling fast in rural towns. Not every community can get one. And sometimes, the bears slip through. In one instance, the ones that slip through are highly intelligent.
As reported by The Guardian, police and hunters in Fukushima are searching for what Mayor Yuki Baba called an “extremely intelligent” bear after it injured four people and escaped from an electronics factory by apparently unlatching and opening a locked window.
The Bear’s Talents Don’t End at Unlatching Windows
The one-meter-long bear was first caught on CCTV chasing and mauling a worker in a company parking lot. A bystander scared it off with a car, but the beast ran into an office building and attacked again. After injuring two more people, it wandered into a nearby factory. Workers watched it stand at a sink, use its paws to turn on a faucet, and drink from the tap, like maybe it had spent a little bit too much time around us, learning our ways, maybe hoping to one day hide amongst us.
Authorities set traps baited with fruit and honey and handed out tranquilizer guns. When the bear popped up again, it was shot with the dart… That did absolutely nothing. The sedative didn’t do its job, and the bear just kept on truckin’. Local police received authorization to use firearms thanks to an amended gun law, but flammable materials in the factory made that too risky.
The escape triggered school closures and had a fleet of drones called in to help in the search. So far, no dice. The bear remains at large.
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