AKIPRESS.COM - 
People in northern Japan have been warned to stay away from mountain forests after four people were killed in a spate of bear attacks, amid a dramatic rise in the number of bear sightings, says The Guardian.
Police in Akita prefecture found the body of a woman they suspect was mauled by a bear in a mountain forest at the weekend. The victim, Tsuwa Suzuki, 74, suffered injuries so horrific that local authorities were initially unable to identify her.
Suzuki, who lived in neighboring Aomori prefecture, had gone to the area alone to pick edible wild plants.
Her death comes soon after three men – two in their seventies and one in his sixties – died from what have been described as “severe” injuries sustained in separate attacks in the same area.
The men were foraging for bamboo shoots when they were attacked.
Takeshi Komatsu, a local vet, said it was possible that the four were killed by the same bear. “After tasting human flesh (for the first time), the bear may have realized that it can eat them,” Komatsu said.
While officials have set traps and told people not to go into the mountains in search of plants and vegetables, local media pointed out that the number of fatal attacks in Akita this year is already half the eight deaths reported in the area between 1979 and last year.
Sightings of brown bears and black Asiatic bears in northern Japan have risen to over 1,200 already this year, almost twice the number reported last year. In some cases, the animals have been spotted near residential areas.
Bear attacks are usually blamed on food shortages that send the animals straying out of their habitats into towns and villages. The recent attacks, however, appear to have been sparked by an abundance of beechnuts, which has led to a boom in the number of surviving cubs.
Experts say people can lower the risk of being attacked by carrying a bell, since in most cases bears are wary of humans. In the event that they come face to face with a bear, the advice is to retreat slowly, watching the animal the whole time.