On April 28 a brown bear, not RT, eats plants on a cliff in Shari, Hokkaido. Wataru Sekita RAUSU, Hokkaido hunters killed a brown bear dubbed RT that was blamed for the deaths or injuries of eight pet dogs during a four-year rampage in this northern town.
The animal, a male, was advanced in age and estimated to be around 12 -- 13. The meager bear weighed about 200 kilograms, but in its prime it may have weighed more than twice that, said a member of the hunting party.
The news that RT is dead was welcomed by town residents, but authorities are calling for them to stay alert as bear sightings have increased in recent months.
After the Rusha district of the neighboring town of Shari, the bear was nicknamed Rusha Taro, RT for short, the bear was nicknamed Rusha Taro, where the animal was first spotted.
Rausu and Shari are both in the Shiretoko Peninsula in eastern Hokkaido, an area of outstanding natural beauty designated as a World Natural Heritage site.
Between 2018 and 2020, five dogs were killed in Rausu during four separate brown bear attacks, all in the summer. In late June last year, another dog was killed and two were mauled in the grounds of a house.
DNA tests on the dogs showed that the attacks were carried out by the same animal.
On June 29, a trail camera in Rausu captured footage of a bear that appeared to be RT, prompting the city office and Shiretoko Nature Foundation to set up a box trap in a nearby mountain area the following day.
An adult male brown bear found in the trap was electrocuted on July 11.
The bear's DNA samples examined at Hokkaido University came up with a match for RT on July 14.
In December, an adult male brown bear weighing a massive 425 kg was killed in Rausu by members of the Hokkaido prefectural hunting association.
Fisherman Kenji Sakurai, head of the Rausu division of the association's Nakashibetsu branch who assisted in the hunt, had long taken part in the efforts to track and kill RT.
In July 2019 he barely escaped with his life when RT suddenly appeared in front of him.
Sakurai, who watched RT's body after it was dismembered, said the bear was skinny but had very thick bones. When it was in peak physical condition, RT could have been as big as the animal killed in December, he said.
Sakurai said the bear had rotten teeth. I think it had difficulty feeding itself due to its age and ended up coming to town to eat garbage and target dogs. He said that the aging animal could have been doomed to die of hunger or be killed by another brown bear.
Bear sightings in Rausu totaled 125 between April and June, up sharply from the 78 in the same period last year.
A town official said that even though RT is dead, we can't let down our guard with regard to bears. We urge residents to take precautions to keep bears away, including not leaving garbage or sun-dried fish outside.