Officials in Japan believe a missing fisherman was mauled and decapitated by a bear after a human head was discovered near a lake.
Toshihiro Nishikawa, 54, was last seen early Sunday when a boat dropped him off on Lake Shumarinai in Hokkaido, the Kyodo news agency reported.
A boat operator later saw a large brown bear nearby with waders hanging out of its mouth. When they called Nishikawa to warn him, there was no answer, the outlet said.
A bear hunt launched by the city subsequently found a human head, as well as one bear that was killed by members of the group on Monday.
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Police are now investigating whether the decapitated head belongs to Nishikawa.
The public broadcaster NHK reported that Japan has seen a spike in bear sightings recently. Hokkaido is one of the most common spots for humans to come face-to-face with the intimidating creatures.
“Perhaps the main one is that the bear population of Hokkaido has recovered after years of over-hunting and as there are simply fewer hunters now,” Kevin Short, a naturalist and professor at Tokyo University of Information Studies, told the South China Morning Post of the uptick.
“The deer population has also recovered, which is a key food source, while there have also been efforts across the prefecture to restore natural habitats in woodlands and along rivers, all of which increases the bears’ range.”
