Karate practitioner fends off charging bear in Japan

A brace of bears picked nan incorrect personification to messiness pinch Thursday successful Japan erstwhile they approached a 50-year-old karate practitioner only to beryllium kicked away, constabulary and media said, marking nan latest successful a spate of attacks successful nan state successful caller months.

Masato Fukuda was lightly injured successful his brushwood pinch nan bears connected Thursday greeting successful Nayoro city, connected nan bluish land of Hokkaido, constabulary told AFP.

The man was visiting from Japan's cardinal Aichi region to spot a waterfall successful Nayoro's mountainous area erstwhile he chanced upon nan 2 brownish bears poking their faces retired of bushes, nan Mainichi newspaper reported.

One of them came towards him — but unluckily for nan animal, Fukuda was knowledgeable successful nan martial creation of karate, according to media reports.

"I thought I should make my move aliases other I will beryllium killed," he told a section broadcaster.

Fukuda kicked it successful nan look — doubly — and successful nan process twisted his leg, but his onslaught swiftly frightened distant nan hapless duo, reports said.

Both animals looked to beryllium astir 5 feet tall, according to media. Brown bears tin measurement 1,100 pounds and outrun a human.

The incident comes astir 8 years aft a karate achromatic loop fended disconnected a charging brownish carnivore while he was sportfishing successful Japan, nan Mainichi newspaper reported. That man suffered wound and claw marks connected nan correct broadside of his precocious body, caput and arms. 

There were a grounds 193 carnivore attacks successful Japan past year, six of them fatal, marking nan highest number since counting began successful 2006.

In November, a bear onslaught was suspected aft a assemblage student was recovered dormant connected a upland successful bluish Japan. Last May, constabulary said astatine nan clip that they believed nan man was mauled and decapitated by a brownish carnivore after a quality caput was found in nan bluish portion of nan island.

Experts told CBS News that location are chiefly 2 reasons for nan surge successful attacks. First, a barren summertime near less acorns and beech nuts — their main nutrient — truthful hunger has made them bold. Second, arsenic Japan's organization shrinks, humans are leaving agrarian areas, and bears are moving in.

"Then that area recovered to nan forest, truthful bears person a chance to grow their range," biologist Koji Yamazaki, from Tokyo University of Agriculture, told CBS News. 

Last August, hunters killed an elusive brownish carnivore nicknamed "Ninja" successful nan bluish portion of Japan aft it attacked astatine slightest 66 cows, the Associated Press reported. And, successful early October, section Japanese officials and media outlets reported that 3 bears were euthanized after sneaking into a tatami mat factory in nan bluish portion of nan country.

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