Bear captured after injuring man in Japanese supermarket

A bear that ravaged a Japanese supermarket for two days may have been lured outside with honey-smeared food and captured, and is expected to be put down Monday, local authorities said. Japan is facing a growing number of bear attacks, with six human deaths, a record since the government's first data in 2006, and 9,097 such animals killed, in a 12-month period through last March .

This latest figure is more than double that of the previous year, according to the Ministry of the Environment. Police received an emergency call on Saturday about a 47-year-old man injured by a bear at a supermarket in Akita, in the northeast of the country.

A head injury suffered by the victim 'will take at least a week to heal once stitches are removed, doctor says'a police spokesperson told AFP. The supermarket was evacuated and the animal left alone inside, where it devastated the meat section, according to the Asahi daily.

Difficult cohabitation

Early Monday, the bear finally fell into a trap containing “rice bran, bananas, apples and bread, all coated in honey”an Akita official explained to AFP. The animal was to be put down during the day on Monday, police said. Human victims of bears in recent months include an elderly woman attacked in her garden and a fisherman whose severed head was found on the edge of a lake.

More than 200 other people have been involved in bear incidents. Experts say the dwindling human population in rural areas of Japan is pushing hungry bears closer to villages and towns. Among other factors, climate change affects the food supply of omnivores and their hibernation periods. This summer has been the hottest on record in Japan.

According to local media, Japanese authorities are struggling to find enough hunters to cull the animals, due to a declining and aging population. The country has two types of bears: the Asian black bear and the brown bear living on the northern island of Hokkaido, which can weigh half a ton.