I'm reading "The soft, fluffy toy designed to scare off killer bears/The Monster Wolf Mini will keep hikers safe with flashing lights and a built-in growl" (London Times).
That's from last February, but it was one of the clickable "related articles" accompanying a new article titled "Four injured as bear rampages through office complex/The attack in Fukushima is the latest incident in a part of Japan where animals and humans compete for space" (video of the attack at the link).
Here's Monster Wolf Mini:
పోస్ట్లు
46 కామెంట్లు:
Is the Monster Wolf Mini available for sale in the US?
I think the main effect of the Monster Wolf Mini would be to baffle the bear rather than scare it.
In an alternate reality, Japan would legalize Alaska-style 10mm Auto and 454 Casull handguns because hungry bears eventually learn that a scarecrow is just a scarecrow.
In a different alternate reality, they'd put Halloween-style motion detecting ghosts and witches as scarecrows along every trail.
Monster wolf and killer bear a'walkin through the forest
Growling back and forth at what the other’n has to say
Killer bear is hungry and sees monster wolf's a plushie
And Oo-de-lally, oo-de-lally, bear really thinks that's gay
Oh sweet Jesus, what have we done to the Japanese, and what have the British done to themselves?
It’s not available in the U.S., for various reasons, according to AI.
Regards.
Lori (reader_iam)
These Japanese bears are a subspecies of a genus that includes the Alaskan Brown Bear, Ursus arctos, one of the most formidable carnivores on the planet, topped only by the Polar Bear. These animals are far too intelligent and adaptable to be reliably deterred by an obnoxious toy. Somebody's gonna die thinking Monster Wolf Mini will keep him safe while hiking through bear country.
Think about it for a moment. Humans and U. arctos have been competing for space since Homo erectus hunters migrated into northeastern Asia 800,000 years ago. Over the last 200 years, humans have been carrying arms far more effective than stone-tipped spears. If bears could be reliably deterred from defending their territories or offspring, the mere scent of a nearby firearm-carrying human ought to send the bears running. But this doesn't always happen. Bears aren't thoughtless automata. They are emotionally complex beings who react to perceived threats with something akin to human rage.
If Japan let me carry guns legally I would probably move there at some point.
Everything costs about 1/3rd in Japan and they don't tolerate human animals.
I thought Japan was expensive as heck? CC, JSM
@john mosby --
The Yen devalued after Japan capitulated on its 1990s-era bad loans.
It was 75-80 Y-to-D in the 1990s, and is now roughly 160 Y-to-D.
The only way I can see that plush working against bears is if you can successfully hide a firearm inside of it from authorities.
Japan has forgotten why they bred Akitas.
With fewer Japanese every year, it seems like the humans and the bears should be able to come to some land-sharing agreement.
Japanese Bear Attacks have been going on for a while. At one point they sent some Japanese Self Defense Force guys up there to do....well, something, but they were not carrying guns. This is a small, silly, niche story that mostly has legs because it reminds us of Godzilla and because it gives a picture of Japan other than claustrophobic, over crowded cities.
The Ainu have a long and interesting history with bears, including killing them using primitive methods. They're quite good at it if Japan's current Yayoi leadership would just let them start culling them again. Alas the anti-hunting anti-conservation mind virus has burrowed in there too.
Wow, I had no idea. I was stuck in the 70's paradigm of Japan being super expensive. I looked up some cost-of-living websites just now that said you can live in Tokyo for $1600/month. Maybe I should retire there! Japan could solve some of their population-pyramid issues, counterintuitively, by bringing in gaijin retirees with hard-currency pensions. We'll need someone to care for us, but the cash infusion would boost the Japanese AI and robotics industries. We would disrupt the homogeneity, but from the "top down:" alternative 1st rather than 3rd world ways of life.
On the gun issue, some gun writer a while back said that if Japan and Switzerland swapped their gun laws, they would both keep their low, low crime rates. Because it's homogeneity, not laws, that keeps the crime down in both places. That's a long way of saying you probably don't "need" a gun in Japan, at least against 2-legged animals. CC, JSM
Japan, a country the size of California, fit ~125M people in cities along the southern line between Tokyo and Fukuoka. Culturally they consider everything more than a few miles from the train lines to be wilderness. In their minds everything up north (e.g., Nagano/Japanese Alps, Akita, Hokkaido) might as well be a long and dangerous journey to Alaska or the South Pole.
Given the aging and shrinking population, many many many small towns and even well-located cities (e.g., Yamaguchi) are shrinking and/or returning to nature. The old people cluster in the major cities more and more.
Most cities are on the flats near farmland, while the hills and mountains nearby remain forests. Without active logging and farming out of town, bears are free to control to more and more of the country.
Curtis LeMay must have put saltpeter in the napalm used to fire bomb Tokyo. This was clear to me when I went to Epcot about 7 years ago. The Japanese pavilion was dedicated to Kawaii Cute Culture. They must have modified ritual Seppaku to castration.
We were awakened when a bear tipped over my trash bin last night at 1AM. It's "bear proof", but the lid came open anyway. We lay there listening to the beast munching for a while, then got up and went outside. It fled as soon as I turned the lights on. As I picked up the trash, I heard another container go over down the road a bit.
Two hours later it was back and tipped the bin over again, but this time it didn't open. The bear didn't hang around.
It must be a thrill for the bear when a container finally comes open, like when a slot machine pays out.
Bears rampaging through offices in Fukishima? And nobody has made a dramatic connection to radioactivity left over from the nuclear plant disaster? It will slowly ramp up from here as the livestock starts disappearing....then the fishing boats are found to have huge bite marks in them.....and then people start vanishing without a trace...and then finally, (Act II) The Beast will finally appear, glowing red eyes, wild brown hair, 25 ft tall and doubling in size every 24 hours, so forth. Then, of course... Godzilla is summoned. Godzilla meets The Army in Act III.
Lucky charm blinks honks
Fails. Blood drops like black blossoms
fall in the moonlight
Yeah, if I’m headed into bear country I want the Monster Wolf Maxi.
You thought cocaine bear was bad enough
If that worked, I can make those sounds myself from behind my sights. Batteries not required.
Send the bears feminists. They're convinced they're more tamable than dudes.
Was a discussion here about stun gun zappers scaring dogs and some wild animals away. Wonder if it would work on bears.
How do the bears know which hikers carry bear spray? They taste spicier than the hikers who don't carry it.
I dunno. I would not want to be among the first hikers going solo in the Blue Ridge Mountains or Glacier National Park and hope that your little stuffed toy, which looked so cute online, looks and sounds fearsome to a hungry Grizzly or Black bear.
Or you could simply carry a stun gun which would work much better without looking like something a predator would eat.
Stun guns won't get through the fur/skin of a bear, and stand to dissapate across the large mass of tissue and fat. Bear spray may sort of work if the bear isn't in the mood to be violent.
Basil Brush! that's a favorite character that I grew up with and haven't heard about in a long time!
"narciso said...
You thought cocaine bear was bad enough
6/3/26, 8:45 AM"
Bad enough? I'm waiting for "Cocaine Bear II"
Enigma writes, "Stun guns won't get through the fur/skin of a bear, and stand to [dissipate] across the large mass of tissue and fat. Bear spray may sort of work if the bear isn't in the mood to be violent."
There have been several studies of non-lethal bear deterrents over the last three decades, triggered by public concern over the killing of Timothy Treadwell and his girlfriend by an Alaskan grizzly bear. Some were commissioned by Alaskan wildlife authorities, others by federal agencies, such as the EPA and the Department of the Interior. Results weren't clean cut, as is to be expected when attempting to quantify bear behavior, but bear spray containing 20% capsicum oleoresin was usually effective against curious or prey-motivated bears, much less so against sows with cubs, under ideal conditions -- favorable winds, for example. Stun guns were deemed far more dangerous to human operators than to bears.
Handguns and rifles still work best, depending on the cartridge and the skill and resolve of the shooter. 12-gauge shotguns can work well if loaded with solid cast slugs, however the accuracy of a possible second shot at close range is very questionable. The best projectile is a flat-nosed, solid cast copper bullet. These will penetrate the largest bear skulls known without shattering, assuming the muzzle energy exceeds 850 Joules. The key to surviving a bear attack using a firearm is to kill the animal outright immediately. Wounding a bear, even mortally, using a typically devastating firearm such as a shotgun firing 00 buckshot, will only make matters much worse.
It should blare some Zappa
I am the ZOMBY WOOF
They all seek for shelter when I come chargin' out
@Qaestor --
If I link to a bing bang source the commet eater will make it disappear. Search for Phil Shoemaker and a 9mm against a bear recently. See the long Spomer interview on Youtube. The key was expert knowledge of shot placement -- it wasn't ideal but effective.
Aaahooo, fake wolves of Japan!
I saw a fake wolf outside Fukushima,
His hair was perfect.
CC, JSM
"Stun guns won't get through the fur/skin of a bear"
LOL! If you're at the point where you can touch the bear, you might as well swallow the gun. The reason why a stun gun is the primary protection to have in the wild is because animals see and hear it from a distance, it scares them, and they run- every single time. So if you can see the bear at a distance you hold up the stun gun and hit the button and it makes a zapping noise and sends an electrical arc that the animal sees and hears and immediately runs away from. There was a commenter here not long ago who got a little pen sized stun gun which she used when deer were in her backyard. She stood in the doorway, hit the button and made the noise and spark, and the deer fled in terror instantly. I personally have used it against multiple aggressive pitbulls and other dogs, coyotes, goats. I hear over and over and over "it won't work on..." whatever animal. Here's what I say: Stun guns are small and light and work at a distance. Carry it when you're out with your gun or your pepper spray or whatever you prefer. When you see the animal, hold up the stun gun and show the spark. If the animal still approaches, which is highly unlikely, then you'll still have time to use the gun or pepper spray or whatever. Bit like I say, you can be 100 yards away from the animal and the stun gun will scare it away. With pepper spray the animal has to be right close to you. If you simply hold up your gun and show it to an animal, the animal is still going to come at you.
Plus, stun guns are perfect for walking dogs in an urban setting where you can't fire a gun to scare aggressive dogs off. All you have to do is ignite the spark and zoom, they run away.
I'd think a non lethal, legal way of scaring a bear away in Japan would be a flare gun. I know they're used in Svalbard as a first line of defense against polar bears.
"Stun guns were deemed far more dangerous to human operators than to bears."
LOL! Horseshit-
https://youtu.be/Zq1KHYvrCiY?si=kl149bWdYuh9pq_N
They aren't dangerous to humans or animals, which is another point in their favor. A gun is a lot more dangerous to both. You aren't going to be hurting anything with the stun gun because the point is to activate before the animal closes in on you. It's as effective as the eye can see.
I have a semi-auto short-barreled 12 gauge that can shoot 15 rounds as fast as I can pull the trigger. I can use it to excavate a ditch that the bear would fall into, so I could beat him to death with a rock.
Not giving bears cute names and trying to befriend them is the only lesson of Timothy Treadwell.
I imagine that Japanese bears are the only bears who wear eyeglasses, but that's probably racism.
"I imagine that Japanese bears are the only bears who wear eyeglasses, but that's probably racism"
Must have pic-a-nic basket!
https://youtu.be/O4hd9qrKcXM?si=p4NA-HuLFUie_lph
bag - short-barrelled but 15 rounds? Must not use a tubular mag? CC, JSM
Amexpat, that stopped when some stupid burned the place to the ground. CC, JSM
Good idea--scare the bear away. Works about 50% of the time.
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