Hokkaido | A treasure trove of wildlife and plants ⋆꙳ Shiretoko Peninsula, a World Natural Heritage Site

Finally, I went to the land of my dreams, Shiretoko! As a nature and animal lover, it was a sacred place for me. I was hoping to catch a glimpse of a brown bear from a distance... but I couldn't even see a shadow lol ⁡ I participated in the Shiretoko trekking as part of an ecotour. I considered going around on my own, but in the end, I'm 100% glad I went with the ecotour. It was a 2-hour trek, following the tracks of wild animals one by one that I wouldn't have noticed if I had gone around alone. The air was clear and it felt great♡ For those who are not confident in their feet, you can see the shores of Lake Ichi from the elevated boardwalk, and since it's elevated, you don't have to worry about spotting a brown bear. To enter the Shiretoko Five Lakes, it is necessary to first participate in an orientation at the Shiretoko Five Lakes Field House. Because this is the habitat of wild animals, including brown bears. It's just a matter of humans intruding on their home. ⁡ Here is what I learned, and what humans need to know. ⁡ Her name is Sausage. When she had just become independent from her mother bear She was given a sausage by a tourist. Humans, which she had previously feared, became food for her from that day on. Sausage, no longer afraid of humans, came down to the human settlement and started wandering around. The people at the Shiretoko Foundation felt this was dangerous and chased her away whenever they could, and sometimes punished her. But she still wasn't afraid of humans. One day, she finally ate a deer near an elementary school. The people saw this and made a decision. She lost her life to a single rifle shot. She lost her life to a single sausage. ⁡ This is a story from 1997. ⁡ ⁡ ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ⁡ Shiretoko Five Lakes Field House 📍 549 Iwaubetsu, Onnebetsu Village, Shari-cho, Shari-gun, Hokkaido ⁡ ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ⁡ #Domestic travel trip #Shiretoko #Shiretoko Five Lakes #World Natural Heritage