The Sumatran rhinoceros

Two thick folds of skin encircle the body behind the front legs and before
the hind legs. The rhino has a smaller fold of skin around its neck. The
skin itself is thin, 1016 mm (0.390.63 in), and in the wild, the rhino
appears to have no subcutaneous fat. Hair can range from dense (the
most dense hair in young calves) to scarce, and is usually a reddishbrown. In the wild, this hair is hard to observe because the rhinos are
often covered in mud. In captivity, however, the hair grows out and
becomes much shaggier, likely because of less abrasion from walking
through vegetation. The rhino has a patch of long hair around its ears and
a thick clump of hair at the end of its tail. Like all rhinos, they have very
poor vision. The Sumatran rhinoceros is fast and agile; it climbs mountains
easily and comfortably traverses steep slopes and riverbanks. [11][

The Sumatran rhinoceros lives in both lowland and highland secondary rainforest,
swamps, and cloud forests. It inhabits hilly areas close to water, particularly steep upper
valleys with copious undergrowth. The Sumatran rhinoceros once inhabited a continuous
range as far north as Burma, eastern India, and Bangladesh. Unconfirmed reports also
placed it in Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam. All known living animals occur in Peninsular
Malaysia, the island of Sumatra, and Sabah, Borneo. Some conservationists hope Sumatran
rhinos may still survive in Burma, though it is considered unlikely. Political turmoil in
Burma has prevented any assessment or study of possible survivors.[26] The last reports of
stray animals from Indian limits were in 1990s.[27]
The Sumatran rhino is widely scattered across its range, much more so than the other
Asian rhinos, which has made it difficult for conservationists to protect members of the
species effectively.[26] Only five areas are known to contain Sumatran rhinoceros: Bukit
Barisan Selatan National Park, Gunung Leuser National Park, and Way Kambas National
Park on Sumatra; Danum Valley in Sabah, Malaysia, on the island of Borneo, and on
Indonesian Borneo west of Samarindah.[28]
The Kerinci Seblat National Park, Sumatra's largest, was estimated to contain a population
of around 500 rhinos in the 1980s,[29] but due to poaching, this population is now considered
extinct. The survival of any animals in Peninsula Malaysia is extremely unlikely.[7]

A cloud forest in Sabah, Borneo

Genetic analysis of Sumatran rhino populations has identified three distinct genetic
lineages.[9] The channel between Sumatra and Malaysia was not as significant a barrier for
the rhinos as the Barisan Mountains along the length of Sumatra, for rhinos in eastern
Sumatra and Peninsular Malaysia are more closely related than the rhinos on the other
side of the mountains in western Sumatra. In fact, the eastern Sumatra and Malaysia
rhinos show so little genetic variance, the populations were likely not separate during the
Pleistocene, when sea levels were much lower and Sumatra formed part of the mainland.
Both populations of Sumatra and Malaysia, however, are close enough genetically that
interbreeding would not be problematic. The rhinos of Borneo are sufficiently distinct that
conservation geneticists have advised against crossing their lineages with the other
populations.[9] Conservation geneticists have recently begun to study the diversity of the
gene pool within these populations by identifying microsatellite loci. The results of initial
testing found levels of variability within Sumatran rhino populations comparable to those
in the population of the less endangered African rhinos, but the genetic diversity of
Sumatran rhinos is an area of continuing study.[30]
Although the rhino had been thought to be extinct in Kalimantan since the 1990s, in March
2013 World Wildlife Fund (WWF) announced that the team when monitoring orangutan
activity found in West Kutai Regency, East Kalimantan, several fresh rhino foot trails, mud
holes, traces of rhino-rubbed trees, traces of rhino horns on the walls of mud holes, and
rhino bites on small branches. The team also identified that rhinos ate more than 30 species
of plants.[31] On 2 October 2013 video images made with camera traps showing the
Sumatran rhino in Kutai Barat, Kalimantan, were released by the World Wildlife Fund.
Experts assume the videos show two different animals, but aren't quite certain. According
to the Jakarta Post Indonesia's Minister of Forestry, Zulkifli Hasan called the video
evidence "very important" and mentioned Indonesia's "target of rhino population growth
by three percent per year".[32]

Male Japanese sea lions were dark grey and weighed up to 450 to 560 kg reaching lengths of
2.3 to 2.5 metres; these were larger than male California sea lions. Females were significantly
smaller at 1.64 metres long with a lighter colour than the males.[2]

Range and habitat

Japanese sea lions were primarily found in the Sea of Japan along the coastal areas of the Korean
Peninsula, the mainlands of the Japanese Archipelago (the both sides on the Pacific Ocean and
Sea of Japan), the Kuril islands, and southern tip of the Kamchatka Peninsula.[2][6]
Old Korean accounts also describe that the sea lion and spotted seal (Phoca largha) were found
in broad area containing the BoHai Sea, the Yellow Sea, and Sea of Japan.[4] The sea lions and
seals left a lot of relevant place names all over the coast line of Japan such as Ashika-iwa (
, sea lion rock) and Inubosaki (, lit. dog-barking point) because of the similarity of
their howls.

Lifestyle and reproduction

They usually bred on flat, open and sandy beaches but rarely in rocky areas. Their preference
was to rest in caves.[7]

Size

The body of Caspian tigers was generally less massive than of Siberian tigers, and their average
size slightly less. In Turkestan, male tigers exceeded 200 cm (79 in) in length, though an
estimated body length of 270 cm (110 in) was recorded. Females were smaller in size, normally
ranging between 160 to 180 cm (63 to 71 in). The maximum known weight was 240 kg (530 lb).
Maximum skull length in males was 297.0 to 365.8 mm (11.69 to 14.40 in), while that of females
was 195.7 to 255.5 mm (7.70 to 10.06 in). Although tigers from Turkestan never reached the size
of Siberian tigers, there are records of very large individuals. In January 1954, a tiger killed near
the Sumbar River in Kopet-Dag had a skull length of 385 mm (15.2 in), which is considerably
more than the known maximum for this population and slightly exceeds that of most Siberian
tigers.[5]

Pelage

The main background colour of its pelage varied, though generally it was brighter and more
uniform than that of Far Eastern tigers. The stripes were narrower, fuller and more closely set
than those of the Siberian tiger. The colour of its stripes were a mixture of brown or cinnamon
shades. Pure black patterns were invariably found only on the head, neck, the middle of the back
and at the tip of the tail. Angular patterns at the base of the tail were less developed than those of
the Far Eastern populations. The contrast between the summer and winter coats was sharp,
though not to the same extent as in Far Eastern populations. The winter coat was paler, with less
distinct patterns. The summer coat had a similar density and hair length to that of the Bengal
tiger, though its stripes were usually narrower, longer and closer set.[5]
Phylogenetic relationship to Siberian tiger

At the start of the 21st century, researchers from the University of Oxford, the U.S. National
Cancer Institute and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem collected tissue samples from 23
Caspian tiger specimens kept in museums across Eurasia. They sequenced at least one segment
of five mitochondrial genes, and observed a low amount of variability of the mitochondrial DNA
in P. t. virgata as compared to other tiger subspecies. They re-assessed the phylogenetic
relationships of tiger subspecies and observed a remarkable similarity between Caspian and
Amur tiger indicating that the Amur tiger population is the genetically closest living relative of
the extinct Caspian tiger, and strongly implying a very recent common ancestry for the two
groups. Based on phylogeographic analysis they suggested that the ancestor of Caspian and
Amur tigers colonized Central Asia via the GansuSilk Road region from eastern China less than
10,000 years ago, and subsequently traversed Siberia eastward to establish the Amur tiger in the
Russian Far East. The actions of industrial age humans may have been the critical factor in the
reciprocal isolation of Caspian and Amur tigers from what was likely a single contiguous
population.[6]

Distribution and habitat

Historical records show that the distribution of Caspian tigers in the region of the Caspian Sea
was not continuous but patchy, and associated with watercourses, river basins, and lake edges. In
the 19th century, they occurred:[5]

in the extreme southeast of the Caucasus : in hilly and lowland forests of the
Talysh Mountains, in the Lenkoran Lowlands, in the lowland forests of Prishib,
from where they moved into the eastern plains of the Trans-Caucasus; and in
the Zangezur Mountains of northwestern Iran;

in Middle Asia : in southwestern Turkmenia along the Atrek River and its
tributaries, Sumbar and Chandyr rivers; in the western and southwestern
parts of Kopet-Dag; in the environs of Ashkabad in the northern foothills; in
Afghanistan along the upper reaches of Hari-Rud at Herat, and along the
jungles in the lower reaches of the river; around Tedzhen and Murgap and
along the Kushka and Kashan rivers; in the Amu-Darya basin as far the Aral

Sea; along the Syr-Darya to the Fergana Valley as far as Tashkent and the
western spur of Talas Alatau; along the entire coast of the Aral Sea; along the
Chu and Ili Rivers; all along the southern shore of Lake Balkhash, and
northwards into the southern Altai Mountains.

Their former distribution can be approximated by examining the distribution of ungulates in the
region.[7] Wild pigs were the numerically dominant ungulates occurring in forested habitats,
along watercourses, in reed beds and in thickets of the Caspian and Aral seas. Where
watercourses penetrated deep into desert areas, suitable wild pig and tiger habitat was often
linear, only a few kilometers wide at most. Red and roe deer occurred in forests around the Black
Sea to the western side and around the southern end of the Caspian in a narrow belt of forest
cover. Roe deer occurred in forested areas south of Lake Balkash. Bactrian deer occurred in the
narrow belt of forest habitat on the southern border of the Aral Sea, and southward along the SyrDarya and Amu-Darya rivers.[5]

The Honsh wolf (Canis lupus hodophilax), known in Japan as the Japanese wolf (
Nihon kami?), yamainu (?, "mountain dog"), or
simply wolf ( kami?), is one of the two extinct subspecies of the gray wolf
once endemic to the islands of Japan. The Honsh wolf occupied the islands of Honsh,
Shikoku, and Kysh in Japan. The other subspecies was the Hokkaid wolf, native to the island
of Hokkaid.

Contents

1 History

2 Physical characteristics

3 Diet

4 Extinction

5 Culture

6 References

7 Sources

History

Illustration from around 1881

Honsh wolves, the smaller descendants of gray wolves, were plentiful in the country of Japan.
They were the smallest known wild subspecies of Canis lupus; they measured about 35 inches
(90 cm) long and 12 inches (30 cm) inches at the shoulder.[2] Their population began to decrease
in 1732 when rabies, first reported in Kysh and Shikoku, was introduced to the area they
inhabited. It affected different wolf populations all through the nineteenth century. Most argue
that it was humans that brought the virus to Japan, trying to kill the wolves on purpose. It is also
believed that local domestic dogs in the regions may have transported the disease. Either way,
along with intense human persecution, the wolves proceeded into extinction.[2][3] The last known
specimen died in 1905, in Nara Prefecture.
Some interpretations of the Honsh wolf's extinction stress the change in local perceptions of the
animal: rabies-induced aggression and deforestation of the wolf's habitat forced them into
conflict with humans, and this led to them being targeted by farmers.[4]
Other sources say the wolves were killed off as a national policy.[5]
There are currently eight known pelts and five stuffed specimens of the Japanese wolf in
existence. One stuffed specimen is in the Netherlands, three are in Japan, and the animal caught
in 1905 is kept in the British Museum. Owing to its small size the Honsh wolf's classification as
a subspecies of the gray wolf is disputed.
The wolf was afforded a benign place in Japanese folklore and religious traditions: the clan
leader Fujiwara no Hidehira was said to have been raised by wolves, and the wolf is often
symbolically linked with mountain kami in Shinto. The most famous example is the wolf kami of
Mitsumine Shrine in the town of Chichibu in Saitama Prefecture.
Sightings of the Japanese wolf have been claimed from the time of its extinction to the present
day, but none of these have been verified[6] (see cryptozoology).[7]

Physical characteristics

Specimen in Ueno Zoo

The Honsh wolf was the worlds smallest known wolf. From nose to tail, it grew to about 35
inches in length and stood about a foot tall. It was said that the Honsh wolf much more closely
resembled dogs, coyotes and jackals than its Siberian wolf ancestors due to their short wiry hair
and a thin dog-like tail that was rounded at the end, along with their short legs. Therefore, the
Honshu wolf is argued to be its own species instead of being a gray wolf subspecies because of
these physical differences.[3]

Javan tigers were very small compared to other subspecies of the Asian mainland, but larger in
size than Bali tigers. Males weighed between 100 and 140 kg (220 and 310 lb) on average with a
body length of 200 to 245 cm (79 to 96 in). Females were smaller than males and weighed
between 75 and 115 kg (165 and 254 lb) on average. They usually had long and thin stripes,
which were slightly more numerous than of the Sumatran tiger. Their nose was long and narrow,
occipital plane remarkably narrow and carnassials relatively long. Based on these cranial
differences, the Javan tiger was proposed to be assigned to a distinct species, Panthera sondaica.
[3]
Classically it is considered to be a subspecies of tiger Panthera tigris.[2]
The smaller body size of Javan tigers is attributed to Bergmanns rule and the size of the
available prey species in Java, which are smaller than the cervid and bovid species distributed on
the Asian mainland. However, the diameter of their tracks are larger than of Bengal tiger in
Bangladesh, India and Nepal.[4]

Habitat and ecology

At the end of the 18th century, tigers inhabited most of Java. Around 1850, the people living in
the rural areas still considered them a plague. By 1940, tigers had retreated to remote
mountainous and forested areas. Around 1970, the only known tigers lived in the region of
Mount Betiri, with an altitude of 1,192 m (3,911 ft) the highest mountain in Java's southeast,

which had not been settled due to the rugged and slopy terrain. In 1972, the 500 km2 (190 sq mi)
area was gazetted as wildlife reserve. The last tigers were sighted there in 1976.[1][5]
They preyed on rusa deer, banteng and wild boar, less often on water fowl and reptiles. Nothing
is known about their gestation period, or life span in the wild and in captivity. Up to World War
II, Javan tigers were kept in some Indonesian zoos, but these were closed down during the war.
After the war, they were so rare already that it was easier to obtain Sumatran tigers.[