Feeding the Bears

Noboribetsu Bear Park, located atop “Bear Mountain” near Noboribetsu Onsen in Hokkaido, Japan, offers visitors the unique experience of feeding Ezo brown bears, the largest land animals in Hokkaido. Accessible via a scenic seven-minute gondola ride from Noboribetsu Onsen, the park is home to over 60 bears.  Visitors can purchase special bear snacks, such as cookies and dried salmon, available within the park. When offering food, the bears often engage in endearing behaviors like standing on their hind legs, waving, or clapping their paws to capture attention. Guests can toss the treats over the enclosure fence, observing as the bears skillfully catch them with their mouths or paws. 

For a more immersive encounter, the park features a “Human Cage” situated within the male bears’ enclosure. Visitors enter a glass-walled room via an underground passage, allowing for an up-close view of the bears. Through designated feeding tubes, guests can offer snacks directly to the bears, experiencing their impressive presence firsthand. When you get that close, it’s easier to realize that they are wild beasts not be messed with (nor kept in a cage).