September 6, 2012 12:25 pm
Three Decades After Last Sighting, Japanese River Otter Declared Extinct
Photo: StampCommunity.org
Japan’s Ministry of the Environment officially declared the Japanese River Otter (Lutra lutra whiteleyi) extinct this week. The river otter, which had not been seen for more than 30 years, once numbered in the millions but was decimated by hunters, habitat destruction and pollution.
As Scientific American‘s John R. Platt reports, the otter grew about a meter long and lived on shrimp and fish. It still serves as the official animal symbol of Ehime Prefecture, located in northwestern Shikoku island. Locals last spotted the animal in 1979 in Kochi Prefecture on Shikoku, and a single photo exists from the event Over the years, several thorough searches for the otters in their old river playgrounds turned up nil.
In addition to the river otter, the least horseshoe bat, the Japanese subspecies of the Asian black bear, a bird species, an insect species and a shellfish species all joined Japan’s extinction list this week.
More from Smithsonian.com:
Accepting the Idea of Extinction
Extinction Rates are Biased and Much Worse Than You Thought
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14 Comments »
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Aw, wow. :<
Comment by omni — September 7, 2012 @ 9:01 pm
so sad
Comment by stephanie — September 8, 2012 @ 1:43 am
This makes me sad.
Comment by LoyalTillTheEnd — September 8, 2012 @ 2:06 am
Good job Humanity!
Comment by mkrck — September 8, 2012 @ 2:45 am
wow good job japan……
Comment by jack — September 8, 2012 @ 3:45 am
Don’t worry, 99% of all the species that have ever lived are, POOF, gone. There’ll be new things eventually.
Comment by Michael Stone — September 8, 2012 @ 3:51 am
Well done mankind.
Comment by Jake — September 8, 2012 @ 5:51 am
That’s quite sad. There needs to be some sort of campaign in Japan against all this. As good as I think Japanese people are they have their failings. – They freaking eat too much fish/sea life, yet do not compensate for any losses because of their feeding habits!
Comment by Jonathan Jones — September 8, 2012 @ 8:50 am
This breaks my heart… Poor sweetheart..
Comment by Ihatehumanity — September 8, 2012 @ 9:22 am
Decimated means to remove a tenth. Why is this otter extinct after pollution, habitat destruction and hunting removed a tenth? Even a tenth each should still leave 70%, right?
Comment by Joshua Schmidlkofer — September 8, 2012 @ 9:28 am
Well, I guess it was them or us. Go mankind!
Comment by Skurtbert — September 8, 2012 @ 12:03 pm
good riddance.
Comment by Robert — September 8, 2012 @ 12:25 pm
I saw this on Tumblr and cried my eyes out. :’(
Comment by Flint — September 8, 2012 @ 2:54 pm
What’s the difference between a Japanese Otter and a Japanese River Otter? There are Japanese Otters at the zoo. Vids on youtube.
Comment by Cheryl — September 12, 2012 @ 11:23 am