2026-05-08T06:33:00-0400 / 哥伦比亚广播公司（CBS）新闻
更新时间：2026年5月8日 / 美国东部时间上午6:44 / 哥伦比亚广播公司/法新社
日本周五确认了2026年首例熊袭人致死事件，而去年该国因熊袭人致死人数达到创纪录的13人。目前有报道称，因饥饿结束冬眠的熊类目击数量出现激增。
去年一连串的熊袭人遭遇事件——包括发生在温泉度假村和超市内的袭击——引发了民众恐慌，日本政府已派遣自卫队协助捕猎和诱捕熊类。其中一名受害者的GPS手表显示，袭击者将其尸体拖离遇害步道超过100码远。
据当地媒体报道，今年熊类结束冬眠后，目击记录再次刷新。
日本环境省表示，今年首例确认的致死袭击受害者为一名55岁女性，其遗体于4月21日在日本北部岩手县被发现。
警方告诉法新社，本周又发现了两具人类遗体，媒体报道称这两起事件均与熊袭人袭击有关。
警方称，其中一具遗体于周四在岩手县其他地区被发现，另一具则于周二在山形县的一片森林中被发现，但未提供死亡原因。
安德鲁·卡巴列罗-雷诺兹/法新社 via 盖蒂图片社
日本放送协会（NHK）确认其中一名受害者为69岁的熊谷千代子，她前往山区森林采摘可食用野菜后失踪。
NHK报道称，警方和救援人员于周四在她停车的森林区域展开搜索，并在上午8点后不久发现了她的遗体。据报道，她的脸部和头部有疑似被动物爪子抓伤的伤痕。
据该广播公司消息，当地官员表示，当地猎人预计将于周五开始在该区域巡逻。
超市惊魂
去年创纪录的13起熊袭人致死事件，较此前6起的最高纪录翻了一番还多，同时还有超过200人受伤。
当时几乎每天都有熊类闯入机场跑道、高尔夫球场、学校附近，以及在超市和温泉度假村引发恐慌。有一头熊在一家超市横冲直撞了两天，最终警方用涂有蜂蜜的食物将其诱出并诱捕后将其击毙。
日本自卫队秋田营地提供/美联社
科学家表示，去年熊袭人袭击激增的原因是熊类数量快速增长，加上农村地区人口持续减少。
东京农业大学生物学家山崎浩二2023年在接受哥伦比亚广播公司新闻记者伊丽莎白·帕尔默采访时表示，人口减少让熊类“有机会扩大活动范围”。
专家称，在气候变暖的影响下，熊类赖以生存的食物——包括橡子、鹿和野猪——数量充足，这让熊类种群得以繁荣发展。
日本2025年的一份政府报告显示，棕熊种群数量在30年内翻了一番，目前约有12000只；而本州岛的亚洲黑熊数量也有所增长，达到42000只。
专家称，这反过来导致了“种群过度拥挤”，迫使部分熊类离开占日本国土约80%的山区，进入人类居住区域。
幼熊尤其会变得不再惧怕人类，并开始喜欢食用农作物和柿子等常见水果。
但2025年的歉收迫使熊类前往其他地方寻找食物，包括城镇和村庄。
据当地媒体报道，今年坚果和其他食物的收成预报情况有所好转，但随着熊类结束冬眠，目击数量也创下了新纪录。
《读卖新闻》报道称，宫城县、秋田县和福岛县4月份的熊类目击数量约为去年同期的四倍。
知名熊类专家、茨城县自然博物馆馆山崎浩二表示，东北地方的居民今年春季必须保持警惕。
“我目前还不清楚为何今年春季会出现如此前所未有的袭击情况，”山崎浩二在接受法新社采访时表示，并补充称今年预计会“趋于平稳”。
“考虑到所有袭击事件都发生在定居点附近，且遗体受损严重，我怀疑是熊类袭击了他们，”他说。
山崎浩二解释称，东北地方的熊类种群数量密集，“这一数量已经增长了约20年”。
“我还怀疑，人口减少和老龄化导致的废弃农田和闲置土地等因素也产生了影响，”他说。
棕熊体重可达1100磅，奔跑速度超过人类，仅栖息在日本最北部的北海道岛。北海道一个饱受野生熊类困扰的城镇安装了机器狼，通过嚎叫驱赶熊类。
而体型较小的黑熊则广泛分布在包括本州岛在内的日本大部分地区，绝大多数熊袭人袭击事件均由它们所为。
萨尔万·乔治/《华盛顿邮报》 via 盖蒂图片社
Bear kills woman in Japan, 2 more deadly attacks suspected
2026-05-08T06:33:00-0400 / CBS News
Updated on: May 8, 2026 / 6:44 AM EDT / CBS/AFP
Japan confirmed Friday the first fatal bear attack of 2026 after a record 13 deaths last year, with reports pointing to a jump in sightings as the animals emerge hungry from hibernation.
A spate of bear encounters, including at hot spring resorts and in supermarkets last year, sparked alarm, with the government deploying troops to help hunt and trap them. The GPS watch of one of the victims revealed that the animal dragged the man’s body over 100 yards away from the trail where he was killed.
Record sightings have been reported again this year as the bears emerge from their winter slumber, according to local media.
This year’s first confirmed fatality, reportedly a 55-year-old woman, was discovered on April 21 in Iwate prefecture in northern Japan, according to the environment ministry.
Two more sets of human remains were found this week, police told AFP, with media reports drawing a link to bear attacks.
One of the bodies was discovered elsewhere in the Iwate region on Thursday, while another was found in a forest in Yamagata prefecture on Tuesday, police said, without providing the cause of the deaths.
Hikers walk past a sign warning of bears in the area in Ome, Tokyo Prefecture on April 29, 2026. ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP via Getty Images
Broadcaster NHK identified one of the two as Chiyoko Kumagai, 69, who went missing after going to a mountain forest to pick edible wild plants.
Police and rescuers launched a search on Thursday in the forest where her car was parked and found her body shortly after 8 a.m., NHK reported. She reportedly had injuries on her face and head that appeared to have been caused by an animal’s claws.
City officials said local hunters were expected to begin patrolling the area on Friday, according to the broadcaster.
Supermarket sweep
Last year’s record number of fatal attacks was more than double the previous high of six. More than 200 people were also injured.
The animals were 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. A bear that rampaged through a supermarket for two days was lured out with food coated in honey, and police said the animal was trapped and later killed.
In this photo provided by the Japan Self-Defense Forces Akita Camp, Self-Defense forces personnel unload a bear cage from a military truck in JSDF Akita Camp, Akita, northern Japan, Thursday, Oct. 30, 2025. AP
Scientists say that last year’s upsurge was driven by fast-growing numbers of bears, combined with a falling human population, especially in rural areas.
That depopulation has left bears “a chance to expand their range,” biologist Koji Yamazaki, from Tokyo University of Agriculture, told CBS News’ Elizabeth Palmer in 2023.
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 brown bear population has doubled in three decades and now stands at around 12,000, while the number of Asian black bears has climbed on the main Honshu island, reaching 42,000, according to a 2025 government report.
This in turn has led to “overcrowding,” forcing some bears to stray out of the mountains — which make up around 80% of Japan — toward areas inhabited by humans, experts say.
Cubs in particular can become less fearful and develop a taste for farmed produce and common fruits such as persimmon.
But poor harvests in 2025 pushed bears to seek food elsewhere, including in towns and villages.
This year forecasts for nuts and other food are better, but as the animals have emerged from winter hibernation there have also been record numbers of sightings, according to local media.
In Miyagi, Akita, and Fukushima prefectures, the number of sightings in April was around four times that of the previous year, the Yomiuri daily reported.
Koji Yamazaki, a leading bear expert and head of Ibaraki Nature Museum, said residents in the northern Tohoku region must stay vigilant this spring.
“I’m not sure yet why we’re seeing this kind of unprecedented damage so early in the spring,” Yamazaki told AFP, adding this year is expected to be “calm.”
“Given that all the incidents have occurred relatively close to settlements and the bodies have been severely damaged, I suspect a bear has eaten them,” he said.
Yamazaki explained Tohoku has a dense bear population as “the number has been growing for about 20 years.”
“I also suspect factors such as abandoned farmland and unused land due to depopulation and an aging population have an impact,” he said.
Brown bears — which can weigh up to 1,100 pouds and outrun a human — are found only in the main northern island of Hokkaido. A town plagued by wild bears in Hokkaido installed robotic wolves to howl at the animals and scare them off.
Smaller black bears, meanwhile, are common across large parts of Japan, including on the main island of Honshu, and are responsible for most of the attacks.
An Ussuri brown bear and a cub eat salmon after catching it from the beach of Sea of Okhotsk near the town of Rausu on Sept. 28, 2019, in Hokkaido, Japan. Salwan Georges/The Washington Post via Getty Images