Japanese black bear

Japanese bear

Vulnerable  (IUCN 3.1)[1] (Kyoto prefecture)
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Carnivora
Family: Ursidae
Genus: Ursus
Species:
U. thibetanus
Subspecies:
U. t. japonicus
Trinomial name
Ursus thibetanus japonicus
Schlegel, 1857
Synonyms

Selenarctos thibetanus japonicus

The Japanese black bear (Ursus thibetanus japonicus) is a subspecies of the Asian black bear that lives on two main islands of Japan: Honshu and Shikoku. There are an estimated 10,000 black bears in Japan. The population of black bears on Shikoku is endangered at less than 30 individuals and the last confirmed sighting of a bear on the island of Kyushu was in 1987, making them likely extinct on the island prior to the 21st century.[2] There is a high price on bear parts in the black market, which threatens all bear populations in Japan. This particular species of bear are typically smaller, with males only reaching 60–120 kilograms (130–260 lb) and females only weighing about 40–100 kilograms (88–220 lb). Their body length is about 120–140 centimetres (47–55 in) long.

The Japanese black bear migrated from the Asian continent to the Japanese archipelago in the Pleistocene, where it appears to have differentiated into several geographically restricted groups, around 100,000 to 500,000 years ago.[3] However, based on mitochondrial DNA analysis, it has been suggested these differences only became pronounced genetically around 30,000 years ago.[3]

  1. ^ "Kyoto Red List". www.pref.kyoto.jp.
  2. ^ "Seeking Balance with the Bear". Nippon. February 1, 2018.
  3. ^ a b Kishida, Takushi; Ohashi, Masataka; Komatsu, Yosuke (September 2022). "Genetic diversity and population history of the Japanese black bear ( Ursus thibetanus japonicus ) based on the genome-wide analyses". Ecological Research. 37 (5): 647–657. Bibcode:2022EcoR...37..647K. doi:10.1111/1440-1703.12335. ISSN 0912-3814.