Japanese River Otter Declared Extinct

After 30 years without being seen, the Japanese river otter (Lutra lutra whiteleyi) has been declared extinct. Though droppings from the otter found in 1999 are still giving hope to some that maybe the animal is deep in hiding. At least Yoshihiko Machida, a professor emeritus at Kochi University still plans to continue searching for it, he told The Mainichi. But Japan's Ministry of the Environment holds no such optimism. Last week, it declared the otter and several other species extinct, including the horseshoe bat (Rhinolophus pumilus miyakonis), and from the island of Kyushu the Japanese subspecies of the Asian black bear (Ursus thibetanus japonicus). The bear, thankfully, can still be found elsewhere in Japan. More