The Japanese river otter (Lutra lutra whiteleyi) (日本川獺, Nihon-kawauso?) is an extinct variety of otter formerly widespread in Japan. Dating back to the 1880s, it was even seen in Tokyo. The population suddenly shrank in the 1930s, and the mammal nearly vanished. Since then, it has only been spotted several times, in 1964 in the Seto Inland Sea, and in the Uwa Sea in 1972 and 1973. The last official sighting of one was in the southern part of Kochi Prefecture in 1979, when it was photographed in the mouth of the Shinjo River in Susaki. It was subsequently classified as a "Critically Endangered" species on the Japanese Red List, On 28 August 2012, the Japanese river otter was officially declared extinct by the Ministry of the Environment.
It is the official animal symbol of Ehime Prefecture.
Read more about Japanese River Otter: Physical Characteristics, Habits, Diet, Efforts To Prove Its Existence
Famous quotes containing the words japanese and/or river:
“A pragmatic race, the Japanese appear to have decided long ago that the only reason for drinking alcohol is to become intoxicated and therefore drink only when they wish to be drunk.
So I went out into the night and the neon and let the crowd pull me along, walking blind, willing myself to be just a segment of that mass organism, just one more drifting chip of consciousness under the geodesics.”
—William Gibson (b. 1948)
“The river sweats
Oil and tar
The barges drift
With the turning tide”
—T.S. (Thomas Stearns)