Released wild bear recaptured and culled near Tokyo - NHKニュース

An Asian black bear that was captured about two weeks ago near a populated area west of Tokyo and then released into nearby mountains appeared again on Saturday. It was recaptured and culled.

There have been a series of bear sightings in October near Koboyama Park in the city of Hadano, Kanagawa Prefecture, close to residential and commercial areas.

On October 20, city authorities captured an Asian black bear and released it in the Tanzawa mountains, about 10 kilometers from where it was caught.

But three days later, what is thought to have been the same bear was spotted again near the park. The city closed the local hiking trails and set up a bear capture-cage.

At around 6 a.m. on Saturday, officials discovered that a bear had been caught in the cage.

It was confirmed that it was the same animal that was earlier caught from an identification tag attached to its ear. The male bear measured 1.4 meters long and weighed about 92 kilograms.

Given that the bear had returned to the same area in such a short period of time and there is considerable human traffic, city officials determined that the animal posed a risk to the community.

After consulting with prefectural authorities, they decided to cull the bear. It was euthanized with a lethal drug after being put to sleep with anesthesia at around 9:30 a.m. on Saturday.

The city says it will continue to monitor for any bear activity using sensor cameras.