Even bears can't resist Japan's summer watermelon

Even bears can't resist Japan's summer watermelon, or at least that seems to be the case from an article I read via NHK this weekend. In Hokkaido's Esashi Town, farmers woke up to find around 80 watermelons eaten in a single night, with paw prints pointing to a brown bear on the prowl. Just days earlier, another 100 melons were devoured nearby. The police are on alert, but so far the bear (or bears) seem to be enjoying a pretty uninterrupted summer feast.

Can't blame them, really...

Reading this from Minamiuonuma where watermelon fields are a local summertime highlight, it got me thinking about what would happen if the same happened here. Thankfully we don't have brown bears wandering around, but black bear sightings are a fairly common occurrence. The idea of them sneaking into fields at night and helping themselves to perfectly ripe Minamiuonuma suika is both a little funny and a little scary at the same time.

Article via NHK: https://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/html/20250823/k10014901341000.html