When they become sufficiently fattened up they seek a cozy den in a cave, rock shelter, partially rotted log or the hollow of an old tree. In the autumn they feast on acorns, chestnuts and beechnuts as well as berries if they can find them.īears in Japan hibernate for around four months generally beginning in late November. In the spring and summer they load up on new shoots, buds, flowers, bulbs and tubers. Acorns are the primary food source for black bears in Japan. Most of the meat they eat comes from carcasses although they have been observed hunting small deer and other animals. They are omnivores that eat nuts, fruits, insects, ants, insect grubs, river crabs, honey, leaves, acorns, other items from the forest and meat. ![]() Japanese black bears roam forests from sea level to the subalpine zone high on mountainsides. In some places they build feeding platforms - high up in beech and oak trees and made by bending and snapping branches - that are used to feed on nuts and acorns. They can outrun a person on open ground and have been observed swimming 300 meters in Japan. They are excellent diggers, tree climbers and swimmers. Both males and females are deep black in color except for a white or cream crescent-shaped mark on their chest, which gives them the common name of “moon bear.” The size and shape of the crescent varies greatly and may even be completely absent.īlack bears have excellent hearing and sense of smell but have relatively poor eyesight. Most Asiatic black bears weigh between 50 and 80 kilograms, with large males reaching a weight of 120 kilograms when the are fattened up at the end of autumn. Asiatic Black Bear Characteristics and Behavior in Japan The number of black bears in western Honshu has been dramatically reduced by the prevalence of introduced cedars and cypresses, which produce no acorns for the bears to eat. These are problems that bears face more elsewhere in Asia than in Japan. They are threatened by losses to their forest habitat and excessive hunting to gain bile and other body parts for the traditional Asian medicine trade. The Asiatic black bear is classified as “vulnerable” on the International Union of the Conservation of Nature’s Red List of endangered species. There are currently thought to be 10,000 to 20,000 of them, with some living a few dozen kilometers west of central Tokyo in the Kaone Mountains and Tanzawa Mountains of western Kanagawa Prefecture. A study by the Environmental Ministry in 1991 estimated the number to be between 8,400 and 12,600. No one knows how many black bears there are. The Kyushu subspecies is probably already extinct. There are healthy numbers of the main subspecies that lives mostly in mountainous areas of central and northern Honshu but the other six - in Kyushu, Shikoku, eastern and western Chugoko, the Kii Penninsual of Wakayama Prefecture, on the Himokita Peninsula in Aomori Prefecture - have been designated as endangered. Japanese black bears are divided into seven recognized subspecies. They are the same as Asiatic black bears found in China, India, Southeast Asia and Russia. Some have even been seen prowling around the streets of Kyoto. Black bears are found throughout Honshu and Shikoku. The HDRO provides other composite indices as broader proxy on some of the key issues of human development, inequality, gender disparity and poverty.Ī fuller picture of a country's level of human development requires analysis of other indicators and information presented in the HDR statistical annex.There are two species of bear found in Japan: the Asiatic black bear and Ezo brown bear. It does not reflect on inequalities, poverty, human security, empowerment, etc. ![]() The HDI simplifies and captures only part of what human development entails. These contrasts can stimulate debate about government policy priorities. The HDI can be used to question national policy choices, asking how two countries with the same level of GNI per capita can end up with different human development outcomes. Refer to Technical notes for more details. The scores for the three HDI dimension indices are then aggregated into a composite index using geometric mean. The HDI uses the logarithm of income, to reflect the diminishing importance of income with increasing GNI. The standard of living dimension is measured by gross national income per capita. The health dimension is assessed by life expectancy at birth, the education dimension is measured by mean of years of schooling for adults aged 25 years and more and expected years of schooling for children of school entering age. The HDI is the geometric mean of normalized indices for each of the three dimensions. The Human Development Index (HDI) is a summary measure of average achievement in key dimensions of human development: a long and healthy life, being knowledgeable and have a decent standard of living.
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