The Hokkaido bear, or Ussuri brown bear (Ursus arctos lasiotus), is Japan's largest land mammal, with males weighing 150–250 kg. They are native to Hokkaido, shy by nature, but have caused a record number of encounters and a fatal attack recently, leading to high-level warnings in 2025/2026. It is the only bear species inhabiting Hokkaido. While some brown bears in Hokkaido have a dark coat, they are not black bears.
Seeing the bears in the wilderness is a dream of nature lovers. Despite the large population of the bear in Hokkaido, estimated at roughly 11,600 to over 20,000 in 2026, the encounter of the bears in the wild is not common. The best chance for us during our Sapporo trip was the tour we booked for the day 5.
Our last stop of the tour included two locations, Mt Usu and the Showa-shinzan Bear Ranch. We choose to hike on Mt Usu ( go to trail head by Gondola) and to visit the bear ranch. With total stop time being 2 hours, after hiking, we had only 20 minutes to spare. When we checked at the ticket office, the staff told us that we had enough time.
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| Torii of the bear ranch |
Going inside, I realized instantly that we had more than enough time, the whole path is less than 100 meters long. That is not to say that there’s not enough to see.
In the ranch, the bears are grouped by ages, and sizes. The bear kindergarten is the first pit I saw
On the left side of the path, I saw baby bears playing on the “playground”. Their bodies are covered in furry black fur, but their faces are bare and in pale brown color. At first I thought that’s because they were just babies, but actually the adults look exactly the same way. Those baby bears were so cute together, pushing the tires and climbing the stations.
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| baby bears |
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| bear kindergarten |
The adult bears are in separate enclosures. Most of them were just lying there and resting, walking around aimlessly. Except for two bears in the water hole, they started by nuzzling, then cuddling, fighting, and getting excited. A couple of other bears walked by nonchalantly, leaving the two enjoying themselves. The two bears in the water were actually engaged in courtship wrestling. After a while they mated.
There are several cages on the left hand side of the walkway, one bear in each enclosure, and they roar, they wave, and they beg for food. Apparently these bears were trained to do those things.
The last “den” hosted even larger bears. There is a path to go down to the same level as the bears and watch them through the barred windows. Those bears are huge! The are twice as tall as I am. When they stand up, they are just massive. I certainly do not wish to meet one in the wild.
Note
The tour guide provided a couple misinformation:
1. there were two types bears in Hokkaido - black bears and brown bears - in fact there is only one species.
2. The bear ranch was a sanctuary - it is not, it is a commercial zoo.
I did not know those claims were false until I did some research when writing this blog.
