Mother bear defends cubs

A video from Bunao Mountain in Ishikawa Prefecture shows a mother Japanese black bear driving off another bear while two cubs scramble up a tree. (x.com) The clip was circulated on X over the weekend, and the location matches ブナオ山観察舎, a wildlife observation hut in Hakusan at the entrance to Hakusan National Park. Ishikawa Prefecture says the facility watches wild animals on Mt. Bunao and shares current footage through YouTube and social media. (x.com) (pref.ishikawa.lg.jp) Bunao Mountain is one of the few public sites in Japan set up specifically for watching wildlife in its natural habitat. The Hakusan Tedori River Geopark says the building sits across the river from the mountain and is open from late autumn to spring, when fallen leaves and snow make animals easier to see. (hakusan-geo.jp) Local tourism officials list Japanese macaques, Japanese serow, golden eagles and Asian black bears among the animals regularly seen from the hut. The site is open from November 20 to May 5, with winter-only operations and guided viewing by telescope. (urara-hakusanbito.com) The bear in the video is consistent with the Japanese black bear, the subspecies found on Honshu and Shikoku rather than Hokkaido’s brown bears. Japan’s Environment Ministry identifies black bears and brown bears as the country’s two bear species and says human-bear conflict has become a deeper problem in recent years. (env.go.jp) Spring is the season when these family groups become easier to spot. The ministry’s guidance says black bears begin becoming active again in late March to April, and mothers emerging with cubs are treated as a higher-risk encounter because females defend their young. (yukutabi-tateyama.jp) (env.go.jp) That helps explain the sequence in the footage: the cubs climb first, and the sow holds the ground below. Young black bears are strong climbers, a common escape behavior when danger appears suddenly. (parks.canada.ca) (x.com) Bunao’s own channel has posted bear videos for years, including clips labeled “parent-and-cub bear confirmed” and spring footage of bears feeding after hibernation. The official prefectural page also says the hut publishes live or recent images during the open season. (youtube.com) (pref.ishikawa.lg.jp) The latest video landed online at the point in the year when Bunao is still open and bears are active on visible snow patches above the valley. In that setting, a few seconds of defensive behavior turned a routine wildlife camera moment into a widely shared look at how a sow protects her cubs. (urara-hakusanbito.com) (x.com)