How bears engineer Japanese forests
![Japanese black bears](https://i0.wp.com/www.sciencenews.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/wt_blackbears_free.jpg?fit=860%2C460&ssl=1)
Japanese black bears live in forested regions of Honshu and Shikoku. The bears are “ecosystem engineers,” a new study claims, because when they break tree branches, the gaps allow light to reach other plants.
Takahashi et al/PLOS ONE 2015 (CC-BY 4.0)