A woman in her 70s thought to have been killed by a bear in Akita Prefecture actually died of hypothermia, authorities have determined.
The woman's body was discovered at around 3:30 p.m. on Sunday in a rice field in the Hanawa district of the city of Kazuno, close to where she lived. She had multiple wounds on her head, face and the backs of her hands that appeared consistent with scratches from an animal. Bite marks were also found on her legs.
With the number of bear-related incidents surging across northern Japan, police initially treated the case as a possible bear attack and began investigating her cause of death.
However, an autopsy conducted on Tuesday confirmed that the woman actually died of hypothermia, and not a bear attack, according to local police.
Investigators found no bear hair, footprints or other physical evidence pointing to the presence of a large animal in the vicinity of where the woman’s body was found. The wounds on her body were also deemed inconsistent with those typically caused by bears.
Based on these findings, authorities concluded that the wounds were caused by a smaller animal after her death.
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