Showa Shinzan Bear Ranch (with baby)

My family and I who are tourists visited this "bear ranch" - or "bear zoo" - today when we were also in the area for the Mount Usu Ropeway. Whilst initially we were "excited" to see some Hokkaido bears "up close", we later "mixed feelings" if such an attraction was a good thing in terms of wild(?) animal welfare, because seeing the bears "begging" for food from visitors was to us, quite sad in tha...

Visited in mid-June and found the bears rather lethargic—perhaps due to the weather. They lounged about with little interest, even as visitors tossed biscuits their way. Amusingly, crows were far more energetic, often swooping in and beating the bears to the treats! While the farm offers a close-up look at these magnificent creatures, the overall atmosphere felt a touch melancholic. Worth a brief...

It was nice to be able to see these beauties so up close, but then I’m really not sure what’s the story here. Are these bears being rehabilitated? Are they let back into the wild once they’re well? Or do they live here their whole lives? Which would be really depressing. We did see baby bears as well and they were so adorable. But again they were kept in this glass walled box. So it’s hard to make...

Adorable! These brown bears are so much in captivity that they have grown accustomed to us waving at them and feeding them. I do agree it is not the best condition to remove them from their natural habitat but I do feel from their behavior some of them actually do feel happy there. It’s a rather small compound. Pay extra to feed the bears. Some of them could even catch your thrown food with their ...

Not sure how to feel about visiting this place. There is no other group when we visited there. The cage is not clean and the bears were look bored. We walked around 10-15 mins and nothing more to do. You can buy 100 yen for biscuits pack to feed them but not sure the bears have enough feeding??