Shiretoko National Park

I had wanted to visit the Shiretoko Peninsula ever since it was designated as a UNICEF Natural World Heritage site in 2005.  Home to animals such as Ezo deer, Red foxes, Ezo squirrels, Brown bears, seals, and whales, it is sometimes promoted as Japan’s last natural frontier.  I had hoped that I would be able to photograph a few of Japan’s native mammals in their natural habitat.  At least in part, I was not disappointed.   

Close Encounters With Wild Animals

In order to leisurely explore the area, I thought that a sensible visit to Shiretoko would involve staying at least one or two nights at a hotel in Utoro, a small community of about 1300 people.  Surprisingly, there were a number of large hotels in Utoro, and I suspect that during the peak tourist season the number of visitors exceeds the local population of the community. The hotel room prices were a little on the high side, and I think this may be a result of the brand value the area has acquired since becoming a world heritage site. 

On route to our hotel, we spotted a young Red fox searching for food amid the grasses on the side of the road.  After the fox noticed that our car had stopped, it looked at us and then quickly scurried across the road. This spotting occurred at last light just after the sunset around 6:00p.m., so perhaps the fox had just started its nocturnal scavenging.  Meeting this fox was apparently a stroke of luck.  When I asked a hotel employee if it were possible to photograph foxes around Utoro town, he told me that sightings of foxes were rare, and only a single young fox was known to wander around the town.  True to the hotelman’s words, this was the only fox I met during my two days in Shiretoko.

The next morning, we set out to visit the Shiretoko National Park Nature Center.  Within 5 minutes of leaving Utoro Town, we spotted a car stopped in front of us and its occupants photographing two female deer quietly grazing along the side of the highway. 

I had expected deer in the wild to quickly run away from humans, but despite approaching within a few meters to take this photo, the two deer did not move away.  In fact, when we moved on after about 5 minutes, the two deer were still basically in the same place they were when we had arrived.  Apparently, the deer in this National Park area sense that they are protected, and they do not fear humans.

A few kilometers up the road, we came upon another deer on the side of the road just in front of the Shiretoko National Park Nature Center. (See photo at the top of this article.)  About twenty minutes later, when we came out of the Nature Center, we saw the same deer and a friend walking through the center’s parking lot.

By the end of this day, we saw a total of 11 deer.

Beware of Bears

Along the roads, and at each of the facilities we visited in Shiretoko, there were numerous warnings about the presence of Brown bears.

Visitors are warned to not approach the bears and to not feed the bears.

 
At the entrance to the Field House at the Shiretoko Goko Lakes (Five Lakes), visitors are greeted by this preserved brown bear and a signboard reminding them that “A Fed Bear is a Dead Bear”.  When well-intentioned tourists feed bears, the bears lose their fear of humans and approach human houses looking for food.  When a specific bear is identified as one that repeatedly enters the human areas despite being chased away, it is unfortunately killed to prevent fatal attacks on humans.

Visitors to Shiretoko who insist they need to see a bear to make their trip complete would be well-advised to participate in one of the boat charters which operate out of Utoro Harbor.  These boat tours travel along the peninsula up to the area where bears often come down to the beach to look for food.  Visitors view the bears from the boat, keeping themselves, and the bears, safe.

The below photo is a view of Lake Number One of the Shiretoko Five Lakes.  Surprisingly, I did not see any animals in the vicinity of this lake – not even a songbird.

In the Forest

After we left the Five Lakes, we travelled on to Kamuiwakka Falls.  Depending on the season and other conditions, the gravel road to Kamuiwakka Falls is sometimes closed to ordinary traffic.  The road to the falls is quite narrow in a number of places, and since it winds around some rather steep drop-offs, this drive requires a certain amount of cool nerves. We did not see any animals on the way to the falls, but on the return trip we came across this large male partially blocking the road.

Like the females we saw earlier, this male showed no apparent fear of humans.

Rausu Town

Since it was only a little after midday, we decided to drive over Shiretoko Pass to Rausu Town which is on the opposite side of the Peninsula from Utoro.  Rausu is a small fishing village, but they also run whale watching excursions that operate from the small boat harbor.

We did not have enough time to go whale watching, but we encountered a few seagulls outside of the restaurant where we had lunch.

At the entrance to the restaurant, visitors are greeted by this preserved brown bear.  Perhaps he died from the embarrassment of being forced to wear that ridiculous pink outfit.

(Note: All photos in this post were taken during a visit in September 2017.  The comments in this post are based on observations made at that time.  Conditions may have since changed.  Please check it out for yourself!)