Human dimensions of Asiatic black bear presence in Akita City, Japan.

Human-bear interactions with Asiatic black bears (Ursus thibetanus) are increasing in Japan. Examining public perceptions towards bears and bear management is timely with shifting lethal control legislation and rapid spread of negative human-bear interactions throughout Japan. Akita City is one site of recent upsurge in social conflict triggered by increasing human-bear conflict. We used key informant interviews and collected opinion data through semi-structured interviews with 35 Akita City residents; the interviews identified depopulation and rural land abandonment as important perceived social drivers of human-bear conflict and revealed different perspectives between urban and peri-urban residents and possible tensions between Akita and non-Akita residents. Most participants were not opposed to lethal control of bears, although justifying thresholds widely varied. Our results suggest the importance for nuanced consideration of residents' tolerance and perception in developing conflict mitigation strategies and gaining useful insights from human dimensions examination alongside ecological study of human-wildlife conflict cases.