A wandering bear that scared residents of a Japanese city just north of Tokyo was captured on Tuesday after several days of panic during which nearly 100 schools were closed.
The bear was first spotted on Saturday near a park in Utsunomiya, a city north of Tokyo with a population of half a million.
City officials said they received dozens of reports of bear sightings in the following days, including near a library, schools and a community center. The bear sightings had forced the closure of all 94 public primary and middle schools in the city on Monday and Tuesday.
The city issued bear warnings via social media and dispatched a public announcement vehicle, urging residents to take shelter inside buildings and vehicles if they encounter a bear, and to make sure to lock doors and windows and not to put out garbage at night.
On Tuesday afternoon, the bear was found on a private property and shot by a veterinarian with a tranquilizer gun, city official Ryuhei Irie said. Nobody was injured.
City officials used a drone Tuesday to track the animal down after it was spotted earlier in the day at a university campus, causing cancellations of all classes.
Officials believe there was only one bear but that they are investigating to be safe, Irie said.
Kyodo News via AP 
Issei Okabe, a 37-year-old house painter who lives in an apartment next to the house where the bear was caught, told AFP he was “so relieved.”
“My kid goes to the primary school nearby… and news reports said a bear appeared around there,” he said. “Then I watched the news, and our house was shown (in the footage)… I was so surprised. This is the first time I heard of a wild bear in Utsunomiya.”
The bear scare in Utsunomiya was the latest example of encroachment by Japan’s growing bear population in areas with an aging and declining human population.
Last week, another bear attacked four people in a residential area of Fukushima, in northeastern Japan, causing moderate injuries. The “extremely intelligent” bear has remained at large after apparently unlatching a window while evading capture, NHK reported.
Kyodo News via AP 
The Japanese government in March estimated the country’s overall bear population at around 57,800. Officials have adopted a road map for bear population management that calls for systematic culls.
A record 13 people were killed by bears in Japan last year, and there has been a jump in sightings as the animals emerge hungry from hibernation.
Bears are thriving thanks in part to an abundance of food — including acorns, deer and boars — under the influence of a warming climate, experts say.
The animals have been seen on airport runways, walking on golf courses, roaming near schools and causing panic in supermarkets and hot spring resorts almost on a daily basis.
The problem was so bad that last year the U.S. State Department warned Americans in Japan to be alert for bears.
A Japanese company making ferocious-looking robot wolves is being swamped by orders after record numbers of fatal bear attacks on humans last year.
“Monster Wolf” is an animatronic scarecrow with flashing red eyes that howls and growls menacingly to scare away wild animals.
