[English page] Bear Dog Future Project

Bear Dog Future Project

We want to connect “bear dogs” working for coexistence between people and bears to the future！

The purpose of this project

 

Dear reader,

Thank you for taking an interest in our crowdfunding project. We are one of Japan’s most active wildlife conservations NPOs, Picchio Wildlife Research Centre.

Based in the mountain resort town of Karuizawa in Nagano prefecture, our conservation work is centred almost entirely around the Asiatic black bear. In partnership with Karuizawa town, it is our goal to improve coexistence between local communities and bears, ensuring both human safety and the longevity of what is a very dynamic and ecologically significant species.

Asiatic black bears in Japan face similar hardships to other bear species around the world. Over-hunting aside, dwindling natural habitat forces bears to live closer to humans and the consequent damage by bears to agriculture, forestry and even human life reduces their numbers further through lethal control (the authorised capture and killing of bears considered dangerous or difficult to coexist with).

Bears in particular struggle to recover from population decreases because their reproductive capacity can be very low. Therefore, it is urgent to develop more comprehensive measures and reduce conflict between humans and bears through the implementation of non-lethal techniques.

 

Collared female bear and her cub leaving their winter den. 

 

One such technique which we helped pioneer in Japan was the use of “bear dogs”. 

A “bear dog” is a dog that has been specially trained to detect the scent of bears and, by barking loudly, they can successfully chase bears away from human settlements. Bears have a high learning ability so by repeating the process of chasing they come to understand that humans are frightening and it’s best not to approach human inhabited areas. In this way, a bear can be removed from a situation of potential conflict without being killed and damages to people can be prevented. We learned these techniques and methods from the Wind River Bear Institute in the US.

"Tama", Picchio’s first breeding female bear dog.

 Of course, bear dogs cannot single handedly prevent human-bear conflict. But at Picchio we believe it is a step in the right direction which proves there are other ways to reduce damages other than just capturing and killing the wildlife responsible. 

This is why we are keen for more people to know about bear dogs and connect them to a future where we can better coexist with bears.  It is our hope to spread the success of our bear dogs throughout Japan and so we want to start breeding the next generation of dogs here in Karuizawa. This crowdfunding project aims to generate a portion of the funds necessary for breeding, raising, and training Picchio’s new bear dogs.

 

We hope you will help us make this dream a reality and offer your support to the upcoming bear dog breeding and training project scheduled for 2024!

From all the staff and bear dogs, thank you!

Yours sincerely,

 

Bear dog handler, Junpei Tanaka with upcoming mamma dog, "Rela".

For more information on our activities, click here.