Japanese wolf | |
---|---|
![]() | |
Mounted specimen of a Japanese wolf at the National Museum of Nature and Science, Tokyo, Japan | |
Scientific classification ![]() | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Mammalia |
Order: | Carnivora |
Family: | Canidae |
Genus: | Canis |
Species: | |
Subspecies: | †C. l. hodophilax
|
Trinomial name | |
†Canis lupus hodophilax | |
Synonyms | |
The Japanese wolf (Japanese: ニホンオオカミ(日本狼), Hepburn: Nihon ōkami, or 山犬, yamainu [see below]; Canis lupus hodophilax), also known as the Honshū wolf, is an extinct subspecies of the gray wolf that was once endemic to the islands of Honshū, Shikoku and Kyūshū in the Japanese archipelago.
It was one of two subspecies that were once found in the Japanese archipelago, the other being the Hokkaido wolf. Genetic sequencing indicates that the Japanese wolf was highly divergent from living wolf populations.
Despite long being revered in Japan, the introduction of rabies and canine distemper to Japan led to the decimation of the population, and policies enacted during the Meiji Restoration led to the persecution and eventual total extermination of the subspecies by the early 20th century. Well-documented observations of similar canids have been made throughout the 20th and 21st centuries, and have been suggested to be surviving wolves. However, due to environmental and behavioral factors, doubts persist over their identity.[4][5][6]
smithsonian2005
was invoked but never defined (see the help page).