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The Honshū wolf (''Canis lupus hodophilax''), known in Japan as the , , or simply , is one of the two extinct subspecies of the gray wolf once endemic to the islands of Japan. The Honshū wolf occupied the islands of Honshū, Shikoku, and Kyūshū in Japan. The other subspecies was the Hokkaidō wolf, native to the island of Hokkaidō. ==History== Honshū 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 long and inches at the shoulder.〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://www.scilogs.com/endless_forms/2010/09/27/although-the-gray-wolf-canis/ )〕 Their population began to decrease in 1732 when rabies, first reported in Kyūshū 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.〔〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://bib.ge/wolf/open.php?id=1094 )〕 The last known specimen died in 1905, in Nara Prefecture. Some interpretations of the Honshū 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.〔 Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1178791〕 Other sources say the wolves were killed off as a national policy. 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 Honshū 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 (see cryptozoology). 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Honshu wolf」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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