DO NOT VISIT: I visited the Okuhida Bear Ranch and left feeling deeply uncomfortable. The bears are held in barren concrete enclosures with little stimulation or space to roam. Visitors can buy food to throw at them, which leads to unnatural begging and pacing, stress behaviours that were hard to watch. Seeing bear oil sold in the gift shop only added to that discomfort. If you care about animal welfare, you might want to skip this place.
Do not come to this place!! It’s animal cruelty. The bears are kept in small cages filled with their own feces. They are forced to perform like circus animals and fight each other because there are far too many bears kept together in one place. We thought it was a nice sanctuary for the bears, but we were very wrong.
We had a wonderful experience at Okuhida Bear Ranch. It was a unique opportunity to see bears up close, and my daughter especially enjoyed feeding them and watching their playful behavior. The visit was fun, memorable, and exciting for both of us. A great stop for families, and we are happy we went there!
20251229 - place accessible by bus. Got ticket with 20 percent discount with the Okuhida Marugoto Value Ticket. Though place is not huge, it houses a lot of japanese black bears. You can get cookies for 100 yen at vending machine or apples at vendor just beside park to throw and feed the bears. Some bears will stand and wave at you for food. It was adorable!. I jist hope though that the place can be larger for them to roam more freely.
animal abuse : small emprisonnement, the bear are overweight so that people can enjoy feeding them, they don’t even have one tree or shadow but only hot rocks and almost no cave to rest. they are constantly exposed to noise and heat. it’s a shame
