Asiatic Black Bear Expert Team Co-chair

Shinsuke Koike is a professor of the Institute of Agriculture and president of Wildlife Management Education and Research Center, Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology. In 1999, he began his studies of Asiatic black bear ecology and bear–plant interactions, and obtained his PhD in 2008, through the Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology. His interests are to clarify the ecological roles of bears in their forest ecosystem; relationships between masting, conflicts, and bear biology; and promote long-term research of Asiatic black bears. He is the president of the Japan Bear Network, which is a non-governmental organization that aims to promote coexistence between bears and people in Japan. He intends to elevate and direct young researchers towards the conservation of wildlife and their habitat.