bear encounters

先生が授業で扱われた素材に関連した記事です（MDN 10/26/19）。なぜクマが市街地に頻繁にあらわれるようになったのかが，簡単な英文で説明されています。少し長くなりますが，引用しておきます。Quercus crispulaなど，結構，語彙力もつきます。（gacha）
What's behind the recent spate of bear encounters?

In all corners of the country, encounters with wild bears have been occurring with alarming frequency. Appearing in villages and towns, bears have attacked and injured many residents, with the number of victims this fiscal year quickly closing in on that of fiscal year 2006, the worst period of bear attacks on record.
The number of those killed or injured by bears from the beginning of this fiscal year to the end of September was 84, according to statistics from the Ministry of the Environment (MOE). In October alone over 10 people were injured, a pace not seen since the 2006 fiscal year, where 145 victims were recorded.
"2007 was a good year for acorns, which is thought to have led to a large number of cubs being born around February of 2008. Bears who are 2 1/2 to 3 years old are the most active and dangerous," says Kazuhiko Maita, director of the Institute for Asian Black Bear Research and Preservation, an NPO based in Hatsukaichi, Hiroshima Prefecture. Maita says that in fiscal 2006 bears were late to go into hibernation and were spotted as late as that December and early January 2007.
"We have to continue to be careful, in case the same thing happens this year," stressed Maita.
There are several possible reasons for the increase in bear encounters. One large reason may be a poor yield of the various acorns and nuts usually eaten by bears in the wild. According to the MOE, beech tree nuts have regular recurring years of poor yields, and this year is one of them. Furthermore, the low temperatures in early spring this year and the unusually intense heat of the summer caused a poor yield of another bear food source, acorns from the tree "Quercus crispula." The lack of food is thought to have driven the bears closer to human settlements in search of alternatives, as they try to stock up on nutrients before their winter hibernations.
According to Toru Oi, head of a bird and animal research laboratory at the Forestry and Forest Products Research Institute in Tsukuba, Ibaraki Prefecture, there were about 10 cases of humans being attacked by bears in the 1980s, around 20 cases a year in the 1990s, and a sudden surge to around 50 cases a year in the 2000s. A possible reason is the lessening of boundaries between bear and human habitats.
"People have stopped developing land in the mountains, and the number of abandoned farm fields has increased. The riverbanks have become overgrown and become passageways guiding bears to cities," says Oi.
Another possible reason is a fall in the number of hunters. "There are more bears now that show little or no fear toward humans. It's probably because they've never experienced being driven away by gunshots," says Oi.
According to Dainihon Ryoyukai, the national hunter's association, in the middle of the 1970s there were around 500,000 people holding hunter's licenses across the country. That number has fallen to around 130,000 today.
There is also an increasingly widespread view that wildlife should be protected from hunters. In the latest string of bear encounters, when local governments have requested hunting associations to exterminate the bears, protests have been received at city offices, such as one fax message that said, "You are all awful."
"It's the city that decides whether the bears are dangerous. The hunters just do what they're asked," said one city employee, defending the hunters.
The number of bears varies by region. "In Western Japan, the Asiatic black bear is nearly extinct," says Maita. However, Gaku Miyazaki, the 61-year-old photographer and publisher of the photo book "Tonari no Tsukinowaguma" (our neighbor, the Asiatic black bear), who studies bears primarily in the Ina valley of Nagano Prefecture, says, "There has been an explosion in the bear population."
For the three-year period beginning from 1982, images from automated cameras Miyazaki set up along animal trails located at the base of the Chuo Alps only showed one bear. However, when Miyazaki began taking photos again in 2005, a great many bears were pictured.
Miyazaki, who has photographed bears, where they have fed and their droppings for many years, says "After larch tree forests in the mountains that were felled in the 60's and 70's were re-planted, they were left untouched. They grew thick with broadleaf trees and food-bearing plants, making a perfect habitat for wildlife."
In an area of vacation-homes in Komagane, Nagano Prefecture, bundles of branches known as "kuma dana" (bear feeding platforms) can be seen in the trees. These kuma dana are created when bears climb the trees, break off branches to get at the nuts on them, and put the broken branches under their bottoms. There are hotels in the area and many tourists, but according to Miyazaki, "no one notices the bears." Conversely, the bears "observe humans carefully," says Miyazaki.
Additionally, the law now makes owners put their dogs on leashes, which combined with the fewer number of hunters has made it easier for bears to live near the cities. Miyazaki believes a "new generation" of bears that have grown up near cities and are not scared by the sounds of humans may be another part of the problem.
"Farming villages and mountain villages are no longer as able to serve as separators of the habitats of humans and bears, and there are fewer hunters. We have entered a period where regional governments will need to take measures such as putting in place personnel in charge of managing the surrounding wildlife," says Oi.
Main bear attacks over the last month (data collected by the Mainichi Shimbun):
1. Sept. 23 Nakatsugawa, Gifu Pref. -- Man, 74, lightly injured
2. Sept. 26 Kazuno, Akita Pref. -- Man in 50s injured
3. Sept. 28 Onan, Shimane Pref. -- Woman, 70, lightly injured
4. Sept. 30 Kanazawa, Ishikawa Pref. -- Man, 52, lightly injured
5. Oct. 2 Kanazawa, Ishikawa Pref. -- Man, 65, injured
6. Oct. 2 Iwakuni, Yamaguchi Pref. -- Woman, 69, injured
7. Oct. 5 Nishiaizu, Fukushima Pref. -- Man, 58, injured
8. Oct. 6 Yonezawa, Yamagata Pref. -- Man, 70, injured
9. Oct. 7 Tendo, Yamagata Pref. -- Man, 28, lightly injured
10. Oct. 12 Katsuyama, Fukui Pref. -- Woman, 56, heavily injured
11. Oct. 12 Uozu, Toyama Pref. -- Man, 58, and man, 81, injured
12. Oct. 16 Fukuchiyama, Kyoto Pref. -- Man, 81, lightly injured
13. Oct. 19 Toyama, Toyama Pref. -- Man, 36, lightly injured
http://mdn.mainichi.jp/features/news/20101027p2a00m0na011000c.html