Lutra nippon

The Japanese otter is about 1 meter long and weighs 4-11 kilograms. It has very short legs and feet with webbed toes. They can stand on their hind legs and are considered the prototype of kappa. The Japanese otter has been overhunted because of its soft, shiny, high-quality fur. In addition, the water pollution caused by pesticides and drainage, as well as the deterioration of the living environment caused by the development of rivers, have led to a sharp decline in the number of Japanese otters. The Japanese otter is a type of otter. There are more than 10 species of otters, which are precious fur animals in the world. Body length: 59-70 cm for females and 60-90 cm for males; tail length: 35-47 cm; weight: 6-12 kg for females and 6-17 kg for males. The medium-sized otter is uniformly dark brown to dark brown throughout the body, and the belly is light milky white to white. The Japanese otter was once regarded as an independent species.

Japanese otters once inhabited a vast area from Hokkaido to Kyushu, living in the middle and lower reaches of rivers and near the coast, feeding on fish and shrimp, and sometimes resting on land. They like clear water, so they are seen as a symbol of the degree to which the natural environment is protected.

The Japanese otter, scientifically known as Lutra nippon, is endemic to Japan and is now extinct.

The Japanese otter was previously mistakenly classified as a subspecies of the Eurasian otter, but later studies have found that they belong to an independent species in the genus Lutra. Japanese otters generally live in the middle and lower reaches of rivers and near the coast, and mainly feed on fish and shrimp. According to the survey results of a German research group in 1965, it is estimated that there are only about 200 Japanese otters in the world. Since then, due to the ineffectiveness of protection measures, their number has continued to decrease.

The reason for the overall decrease in the number of Japanese otters may be that their fur is very expensive and they are hunted in large numbers by hunters. However, since otters will invade fish farms or steal fish caught by fishermen, they will also be hunted by humans. The more important reason is that due to the opening of farms, deforestation, the reduction of fish in rivers, and the separation of river systems, Japanese otters cannot migrate freely when the seasons change. In a closed natural environment, their ecology is destroyed or polluted, which is probably the biggest reason for the extinction of Japanese otters.

Due to overfishing, pesticides and drainage leading to water pollution, and the development of rivers leading to the deterioration of the living environment, the survival of the Japanese otter is threatened. Entering the 1950s, it can only be found in Shikoku. The last sighting was in 1979, in the Shinjo River in Susaki City, Kochi Prefecture.

On August 28, 2012, the Japanese Ministry of the Environment officially announced the extinction of the Japanese otter.

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