Per the article, they didn’t remove the livers, only depleted the macrophages:

“We found that after macrophage depletion, pigeons flying under overcast conditions lacked their usual orientation capabilities,” they said.

Also:

When the sun was visible, the birds’ orientation was unimpaired, suggesting that visual and solar-based cues were another of the pigeons’ navigation methods.

Those bears are living in mountainous areas with forest cover. One of the causes of the bear population boom was the declining number of hunters in those areas. The Japanese government had allocated 3.4 billion yen (around 21 million US dollars) for “bear countermeasures” in 2025. They also had already deployed soldiers to put traps and allowed the police to shoot and kill bears when necessary.

The World Institute of Kimchi is an affiliate institution of Korea Food Research Institute, which is government-funded. (per Wikipedia)