Japanese otter declared officially extinct

Always sad to read of an extinction, but of a mammal, so familiar to us all (even though i never knew of the Japanese form).
 
River otters have been restored to many areas of North America where they were extirpated. Is the same true of Europe? Perhaps the same could be true of Japan if a closely related source population were identified.
 
Over-hunting, land development, and pollution are to blame - so the article says. It didn't directly mention the deadly combination of over-population and apathy though.

This is a sad result, but it is even sadder that there are none in zoos. These animals are genuinely gone forever.
 
nanoboy said:
Over-hunting, land development, and pollution are to blame - so the article says. It didn't directly mention the deadly combination of over-population and apathy though.

This is a sad result, but it is even sadder that there are none in zoos. These animals are genuinely gone forever.
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My interpretation based on what little I know about Japan is that there may be an opportunity to restore otter populations, if people wanted to do that. The Japanese endemic population of the otter is gone, and that is genuinely sad, but the Eurasian otter in Europe at least has substantial gene flow between populations. If the same is true in Asian otter populations then there may be otter populations somewhere in the vicinity of Japan that would make genetically appropriate stock for reintroduction. The population of Japan is stable and shrinking. I don't know if this translates to ecological restoration of rivers to water and habitat quality appropriate for otters, but if it did and there is a significant fan base for otter restoration in Japan then maybe a new Japanese otter population could be formed (albeit not the same genetically as the original).

Otters, beaver, deer, several waterfowl species, black bears, coyotes, and grey wolves were all functionally extinct from large parts of their range in North America in the first few decades of the 20th century. All of these species have made or are making come backs to much of their former range. I say this not too be Pollyanna-ish and deny your points nanoboy, because you make important points. There are models for un-screwing up some of the natural world however - if we choose to do so.
 
From what I understand, there is some debate on whether or not the Japanese Otter is/was a separate species from the Eurasian Otter.
 
DavidBrown said:
My interpretation based on what little I know about Japan is that there may be an opportunity to restore otter populations, if people wanted to do that. The Japanese endemic population of the otter is gone, and that is genuinely sad, but the Eurasian otter in Europe at least has substantial gene flow between populations. If the same is true in Asian otter populations then there may be otter populations somewhere in the vicinity of Japan that would make genetically appropriate stock for reintroduction. The population of Japan is stable and shrinking. I don't know if this translates to ecological restoration of rivers to water and habitat quality appropriate for otters, but if it did and there is a significant fan base for otter restoration in Japan then maybe a new Japanese otter population could be formed (albeit not the same genetically as the original).

Otters, beaver, deer, several waterfowl species, black bears, coyotes, and grey wolves were all functionally extinct from large parts of their range in North America in the first few decades of the 20th century. All of these species have made or are making come backs to much of their former range. I say this not too be Pollyanna-ish and deny your points nanoboy, because you make important points. There are models for un-screwing up some of the natural world however - if we choose to do so.
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All fair points. It would be fantastic for Japanese otters to be found/bred and released back in the wild. The North American animals that you refer to were merely extinct locally though (as compared to all gone, I believe), and there was impetus from conservationists to bring them back. So your last sentence really hit the nail on the head: in many cases, we can undo our crap, but only if we choose to do so. The question then becomes "is there a powerful enough conservation lobby in Japan to fix this?". Given their official attitude towards whaling and tuna fishing, I do wonder. Maybe the approach would be to try to stir nationalistic pride: "these are OUR Japanese otters, and they must be conserved".
 
The Host of Extinct or Alive, Forrest Galante, on Animal Planet should do an expedition episode on this animal.
 
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