Overview
- Ohta Seiki says it has taken roughly 50 orders for its Monster Wolf in 2026, exceeding a typical full year and creating a two to three month backlog.
- Buyers include farmers, golf course operators and outdoor workers who want a nonlethal way to keep bears away from fields, fairways and job sites.
- The device is a solar-assisted animatronic scarecrow with motion sensors, red LED eyes and speakers that play about 50 harsh sounds audible up to roughly one kilometer, with base prices near $4,000.
- Japan logged 13 deaths, more than 50,000 sightings and 14,601 bears captured and culled since 2025, with reports of animals entering homes and schools as some northern areas saw April sightings jump severalfold.
- Researchers point to a growing bear population and a poor acorn harvest as key drivers, while the government escalated culling and even deployed troops in late 2025 as stopgap measures.