Thursday

Hokkaido Wolf

The Hokkaido Wolf (Canis lupus hattai (蝦夷狼, Ezo-ōkami)), also known as the Ezo Wolf, is one of the two extinct subspecies of Canis lupus that have been called the Japanese Wolf. The other is the Honshū Wolf.

This endemic wolf of Japan occupied the island of Hokkaidō. The Hokkaido Wolf was larger than the Honshū Wolf, more closely approaching the size of a regular Gray Wolf.

The Hokkaido Wolf became extinct during the Meiji restoration period. The wolf was deemed a threat to ranching (which the Meiji government promoted at the time) and targeted via a bounty system and a direct chemical extermination campaign. Hokkaido experienced significant development during this period and the Hokkaido Wolf also suffered from resulting environmental disruption.

The wolf was afforded a benign, rather than malignant, place in Japanese mythology and religion: the clan leader Fujiwara no Hidehira was said to have been raised by wolves, and the wolf is often symbolically linked with mountain kami in Shinto (the most famous example being the wolf kami of Mitsumine Shrine in the town of Chichibu in Saitama Prefecture) on Honshū island.

Sightings of the Hokkaido Wolf have been claimed from the time of its extinction to the present day, but none of these have been verified.

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Nomura Jellyfish - Giant Jellyfish

Nomura's Jellyfish (エチゼンクラゲ, echizen kurage, Nemopilema nomurai) is a very large Japanese jellyfish. It is in the same size class as the lion's mane jellyfish, the largest cnidarian in the world. The width of these jellyfish are slightly larger than the height of most full grown men.

Growing up to 2 meters (6 feet 7 inches) in diameter and weighing up to 220 kilograms (ca. 450 pounds), Nomura's Jellyfish reside primarily in the waters between China and Japan, primarily centralized in the Yellow Sea and East China Sea where they spawn.

While stings of this large jellyfish are painful, they are not usually toxic enough to cause serious harm in humans. However, the jellyfish's sting has been reported as fatal in some cases by causing a build-up of fluid in the lungs. As a precaution, fisherman encountering these jellyfish wear eye protection and protective clothes. To date there have only been nine reported deaths from the Nomura's sting.

The most recent problems first became obvious in late August 2005 when Japanese fishermen fishing for squid, anchovies, salmon and Japanese amberjack began finding huge numbers of the jellyfish in their nets. The areas that were hardest hit were the Sea of Japan coasts of Fukui and Shimane prefectures in western Japan.

Often, the weight of the echizen kurage broke the nets or crushed fish in the net. In the worst cases, as many as 1000 Nomura's jellyfish have been trapped in one net. Many fish trapped within the net with the jellyfish that survived were too poisoned and slimed by the tentacles to be of commercial value.

In some places, jellyfish density is reported to be "one hundred times higher" than normal, without explanation. There was a previous spike in the population recorded in 1958 and in 1995. There have been widely disseminated theories as to the cause of the population increase, but no definite explanation. One such theory is that development of ports and harbors along the Chinese coast have provided an increase in structures for the Nomura larvae to attach themselves to. Another is that the seas off of China have been inundated with nutrient-rich run-off from farms and industry. Yet another is that China has over-fished their waters and reduced the populations of the jellyfish's natural predators, which fed on the larvae while they are still zooplankton. Yet another cause may be China's new dam, the Three Gorges Dam. On the Yangtze River, the Three Gorges Dam, the world's largest hydroelectric project, has increased the amount of phosphorus and nitrogen in the waters off China!
, creating an ideal breeding ground for Nomura's jellyfish. A final possibility is global warming which would cause the heating up of the seawater and encourage jellyfish breeding. The water could become more acidic, making it it a more suitable environment for jellyfish survival. Jellyfish also have the ability to take in oxygen directly from their skin. This allows the jellyfish thrive in the oceans growing dead zones.

The problem with combating the jellyfish is that when they are under attack or killed, they release billions of sperm or eggs which connect in the water and attach to rocks or coral formations. when the conditions are favorable, the creatures detach from their home millions at a time and grow into more jellyfish.

In an attempt to utilize the jellyfish in a productive manner, coastal communities in Japan are doing their best to promote jellyfish as a novelty food, sold dried and salted; students in Obama, Fukui (Japan) have managed to turn them into tofu, and jellyfish collagen is also reported to be beneficial to the skin.

The jellyfish population has become such a substantial problem for Japan that it has led the government to form a committee to combat the problem. They have been creating kill-nets to catch and destroy the jellyfish before they can do any more harm, yet this typically only results in the aforementioned survival tactic of releasing their sperm and eggs.

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Honshu Wolf

Honshū Wolf


Honshū Wolf
Canis lupus hodophilax
Canis lupus hodophilax
Conservation status
Extinct (1905)
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Carnivora
Family: Canidae
Genus: Canis
Species: C. lupus
Subspecies: C. l. hodophilax
Trinomial name
Canis lupus hodophilax
(Temminck, 1839)
Synonyms

* hodopylax (Temminck, 1844)
* japonicus (Nehring, 1885)[1]

The term "Japanese Wolf" (狼 or オオカミ, Ōkami?) refers to two extinct subspecies of the Gray Wolf. The subspecies that the name 'Japanese Wolf' usually describes is the Honshū Wolf (Canis lupus hodophilax (日本狼 or ニホンオオカミ, Nihon Ōkami?)), which occupied the islands of Honshū, Shikoku, and Kyūshū in Japan. The other is the Hokkaido Wolf. The Honshū Wolf is thought to have become extinct due to a combination of rabies, which was first reported in Kyūshū and Shikoku in 1732, and human eradication. The last known specimen died in 1905, in Nara Prefecture.

Some interpretations of the Honshū Wolf's extinction stress the change in local perceptions of the animal: rabies-induced aggression and deforestation of the wolf's habitat forced them into conflict with humans, and this led to them being targeted by farmers.

There are currently eight known pelts and five stuffed specimens of the Japanese Wolf in existence. One stuffed specimen is in the Netherlands, three are in Japan, and the animal caught in 1905 is kept in the British Museum. Owing to its small size (the Honshū Wolf is the smallest known variety of wolf, probably due to allopatric speciation / island dwarfing) the Honshū Wolf's classification as a subspecies of the grey wolf is disputed.

The wolf was afforded a benign, rather than malignant, place in Japanese folklore and religious traditions: the clan leader Fujiwara no Hidehira was said to have been raised by wolves, and the wolf is often symbolically linked with mountain kami in Shinto (the most famous example being the wolf kami of Mitsumine Shrine in the town of Chichibu in Saitama Prefecture).

Sightings of the Japanese Wolf have been claimed from the time of its extinction to the present day, but none of these have been verified.

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