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CNN Live Sunday

"Our Planet"; Bear Hunting in Japan

Aired April 29, 2001 - 17:21   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
STEPHEN FRAZIER, CNN ANCHOR: Now this story we told you about Japan's bears facing an ominous threat because medicines made from the animal's bile are sought after in Asia, and with more young people there embracing traditional medicine and with few restrictions against hunting bears, their numbers could soon dwindle.

Here's the rest of the story from CNN's Gary Strieker.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GARY STRIEKER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In the dark of night, a bear raids a garbage dump in a Japanese mountain resort. A habit like this could get this bear shot. It could also be killed for another reason, to supply pharmacies that specialize in traditional Chinese medicine; a market with a strong demand for bear gall bladders and medicines made from bear bile.

Pharmacist Utaka Takahashi (ph) says bear bile is very effective medicine for chronic stomach disease and for gallstones. He says he's now marketing tradition medicine like bear bile on the Internet, and more younger people are starting to use it; an ominous threat to Japanese bears.

In the entire East Asia market for traditional Chinese medicine, Japan is now the only nation with a sizable population of wild bears; about 10,000 of them. There are brown bears on the northern island, Hokkaido, but most are smaller Asian black bears on the main southern islands. This one now has radio collar to allow scientists to track him.

In Karui Sawa (ph), northwest of Tokyo, researchers in this project have captured and collared seven black bears. Musawu Koyama (ph) keeps track of them to learn how far they range in these rugged mountains and how they survive. He says we know very little about the status of the bear population, but he believes they face extinction because there's almost no regulation on bear hunting.

Officially, about 1,400 bears are killed every year in Japan for sport hunting and pest control. But conservationists believe the actual number is much higher. Meanwhile, pharmacists say their stocks of imported bear bile medicine are almost exhausted. International trade restrictions and conservation laws have shut down imports from sources like Chinese bear bile farms, widely condemned as inhumane. (on camera): Wildlife experts say without more controls on hunting, Japan's populations of wild bears could soon be endangered, especially if they're targeted as a source of gall bladders to meet local demand for traditional Chinese medicine.

(voice-over): But those who are concerned about these bears say the importance of their cause is still unrecognized by government authorities and widely ignored by the Japanese public.

Gary Strieker, CNN, Karui Sawa, Japan.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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