Officials in Japan imagine a missing fisherman was mauled and decapitated by a bear after a human head was discovered near a lake.
Toshihiro Nishikawa, 54, was last seen Sunday morning when a boat dropped him off at Lake Shumarinai in Hokkaido. Kyodo news agency reported.
The boat operator later saw a large brown bear nearby with waders hanging from its mouth.
Once they called Nishikawa to warn him, there was no response, the outlet said.
A bear hunt launched by the town subsequently found a human head, in addition to one bear, which was killed by members of the group on Monday.
The police investigate whether the severed head belongs to Nishikawa.
The public broadcaster NHK reported that Japan has recently seen a sharp increase in bear sightings.
![Bear.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/05/NYPICHPDPICT000011296192-1.jpg?w=1024)
![Shumarinai Lake.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/05/NYPICHPDPICT000011296456.jpg?w=1024)
Hokkaido is one of the crucial common places where people come nose to nose with terrifying creatures.
“Perhaps the major one is that the bear population in Hokkaido has recovered after years of overhunting, and now there are simply fewer hunters,” Kevin Short, a naturalist and professor on the Tokyo University of Information Studies, told the South China Morning Post growth.
“Deer populations, that are a key food source, have also recovered, while efforts have also been made across the prefecture to revive natural habitats in forests and along rivers, increasing the bears’ range.”