Nature The Japanese wolf: not so extinct?

[thomas]

Having become extinct at the beginning of the twentieth century, the Japanese wolf continues to be sighted in the rugged mountains of Okutama and Okuchichibu. The last known wolf died in captivity in Nara in 1905. Hiroshi Yagi, who heads a nonprofit organization dedicated to proving Japanese wolves still exist, believes he will one day be able to prove his hunch. While giving an address about his work in mid-November at the famed Omachi Alpine Museum here, multiple participants came forward with stories of encountering creatures they believed to be Japanese wolves. The event coincided with a special exhibition about the city and the animals that used to inhabit the area.

The Chichibu wild dog that Hiroshi Yagi photographed in October 1996 in the Chichibu region of Saitama Prefecture.​

Japanese wolves were last officially recorded in Nagano Prefecture during the Meiji Era (1868-1912). Despite that, there have been a string of supposed sightings in recent years and claims of having heard the animals howling in the wilderness. Yagi, 74, reckons he heard a wolf howling in July 1969 when he stayed at a mountain hut as a staff member on Mount Naebasan near the border between Nagano and Niigata prefectures. He has since devoted much time to tracking down a live specimen. Only three specimens of Japanese wolf exist at the National Museum of Nature and Science in Tokyo and elsewhere in Japan. There are no known photos of live wolves. The only type specimen that could identify the Japanese wolf is kept at a Dutch museum. It was shipped to the Netherlands by German doctor Philipp Franz von Siebold, who arrived in Japan during the late Edo Period (1603-1867). Siebold sent the fur and skull of a Japanese wolf and a "yamainu" (mountain dog). The type specimen's stand refers to the sample as that of a yamainu to raise a question: Is the Japanese wolf the same as a yamainu? Confusion lingers over whether the two animals are the same or different from each other. Japanese wolves were killed off before Japanese researchers took an interest in them. As a result, little is known about the species.

Japanese wolf perhaps not extinct, but proof remains elusive | The Asahi Shimbun: Breaking News, Japan News and Analysis

Last year, Nippon.com had an excellent feature on the Japanese wolf by photographer Hayashi Michiko, who looked for traces of the enigmatic animals.

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Sacred Beasts: Hunting for Traces of the Vanished Japanese Wolf

Japanese wolves, once found across Japan, are thought to have gone extinct over a century ago. Yet sightings and the sounds of distant howls are regularly reported in the Okuchichibu and Okutama mountains to the north and west of central Tokyo, where wolves have long been worshipped...

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