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Creature record / 1996

Hiroshi Yagi's "Chichibu yaken" photographs

October 14, 1996 · Forest road near Lake Naguri, Chichibu mountains, Hannō, Saitama Prefecture, Japan
31Partially documented Cryptid Creature 19 sources 1 real photos 1 videos

October 14, 1996. Around 4 p.m. A light drizzle falls on a narrow forest road near Lake Naguri, in the Chichibu mountains of Saitama Prefecture. Hiroshi Yagi has spent decades searching for wolves. Now a sinewy canine with pointed ears and a black-tipped tail crosses in front of the van. It stands still. Yagi reaches for a Minolta 707. For about 30 minutes the animal stays. Yagi takes 19 photographs, comes within about a metre and offers a rice cracker. It refuses. Then it trots into the bushes. The Japanese wolf had been thought extinct since 1905. Released in 1997, the pictures set off a media frenzy, and the question they raised has never been settled.

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Context

The Japanese wolf, Canis lupus hodophilax, was thought extinct. The last confirmed animal was taken at Higashiyoshino (Washikaguchi), Nara, in January 1905.

Sources (19, most influential first)

  1. In search of Japan's lost wolves, ch. 2: Chance encounter · The Japan Times · Press, book, documentary · news
  2. In search of Japan's lost wolves, ch. 1: Primal howl · The Japan Times · Press, book, documentary · news
  3. Sacred Beasts: Hunting for Traces of the Vanished Japanese Wolf · Nippon.com· 2023-05-25 · Press, book, documentary · news
  4. Japanese wolf · Wikipedia · Wiki, blog, podcast · wiki
  5. In search of Japan's extinct wolves · The Japan Times· 2019-05-25 · Press, book, documentary · news