Japanese black bear

The Japanese black bear (Ursus thibetanus japonicus) is a subspecies of the Asian black bear that lives on two main islands of Japan: Honshu and Shikoku.

Japan’s bear population is growing, with one recent estimate putting the number of black bears at 44,000 – compared with 15,000 estimated in 2012. The population of black bears on Shikoku is endangered at less than 30 individuals and the last confirmed sighting of a bear on the island of Kyushu was in 1987, making them likely extinct on the island prior to the 21st century. This particular species of bear are typically smaller, with males only reaching 60–120 kilograms (130–260 lb) and females only weighing about 40–100 kilograms (88–220 lb). Their body length is about 120–140 centimetres (47–55 in) long.

The Japanese black bear migrated from the Asian continent to the Japanese archipelago in the Pleistocene, where it appears to have differentiated into several geographically restricted groups, around 100,000 to 500,000 years ago. However, based on mitochondrial DNA analysis, it has been suggested these differences only became pronounced genetically around 30,000 years ago.