Ayuka Saito hasn’t been living in the town of Otsuchi, Iwate Prefecture, for very long. It’s where her husband grew up, though, and the couple moved back to his hometown in the spring as they got ready to welcome their first child into the world, with their son being born in late July.
The 21-year-old Saito seems to be adjusting well to both her new home and new role as a mother. Around 9 p.m. on the night of September 11, she noticed they were running low on cooking spices, so she decided to go for a walk to a nearby drugstore to pick some up. Since the weather was nice, she decided to take her baby boy, who’s not yet two months old, with her, and snapped a few pictures of the moon, which was looking especially pretty in the September sky, along the way.
▼ It’s not clear exactly where in Otsuchi Saito lives, but the town was some very picturesquely bucolic views.
However, this tranquil stroll suddenly became something much less pleasant when Saito heard noises coming from some vegetation at the side of the road along with growling noises. At first she thought it might be a stray dog or wild boar, but it turned out to be, she says, three bears that emerged from the bushes.
This was Saito’s first time in her life to ever see bears in the wild, and her thoughts immediately turned to the baby she was holding in her arms. “I have to protect this child,” she remembers thinking, as the bears drew closer. When one of the animals lunged at her, Saito says she lashed out with her right foot, kicking the animal as hard as she could. She thinks her kick landed in the bear’s stomach, causing it to withdraw a few steps and opening up a lane for Saito to run through. She says the bears started to chase after her, but she kept running, and the next time she looked back, they were no longer in pursuit.
Saito is a former member of Japan’s Self-Defense Forces, but says she never received any specialized training in how to fight off a bear and was apparently acting on instinct. Her story is one of impressive courage, and it’s a relief that neither she nor her baby were harmed, but we’d be remiss if we didn’t point out that experts recommend handling most ordinary encounters with wild bears differently. Following Saito’s incident, the Iwate prefectural government’s Department of Nature Conservation issued a reminder that if you’re not already being attacked, the best course of action is usually to maintain eye contact with the bear and slowly back away, avoiding doing anything to startle the animal or present yourself as prey.
Running across three bears at once also suggests that Saito may have cross paths with a mother and cubs. Mother bears are fiercely protective and can become instantly aggressive if startled when roaming with their young, as we saw when one straight-up attacked a car earlier this year in Hokkaido. It’s for that reason that experts also strongly recommend attaching a bell to your belt or bag, or playing a radio, when walking in areas with a wild bear population, to make your presence audibly known long before a bear can feel like you’re threateningly encroaching on its personal/ursine space, and Sairo says she now plans to purchase a bell for this purpose.
Source: Livedoor News/Asahi Shimbun Digital via Otakomu, Asahi Shimbun Digital
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