The Amami rabbit, or Amami no-kuro-usagi, also known as the Ryukyu rabbit is a dark-furred rabbit which is only found in Amami Ōshima and Toku-no-Shima, two small islands between southern Kyūshū and Okinawa in Kagoshima Prefecture in Japan. Often called a living fossil, the Amami rabbit is a living remnant of ancient rabbits that once lived on the Asian mainland, where they died out, remaining only on the two small Japanese islands where they live today.
A feral cat or a stray cat is an unowned domestic cat that lives outdoors and avoids human contact: it does not allow itself to be handled or touched, and usually remains hidden from humans. Feral cats may breed over dozens of generations and become an aggressive local apex predator in urban, savannah and bushland environments. Some feral cats may become more comfortable with people who regularly feed them, but even with long-term attempts at socialization, they usually remain aloof and are most active after dusk. Of the 700 million cats in the world, 480 million of them are feral.
The Western barred bandicoot, also known as the Shark Bay bandicoot or the Marl, is a small species of bandicoot; now extinct across most of its former range, the western barred bandicoot only survives on offshore islands and in fenced sanctuaries on the mainland.
Hawaiian honeycreepers (Fringillidae), of the subfamily Carduelinae, were once quite abundant in all forests throughout Hawai'i. This group of birds historically consisted of at least 51 species. Less than half of Hawaii's previously extant species of honeycreeper still exist. Threats to species include habitat loss, avian malaria, predation by non-native mammals, and competition from non-native birds.
The Malagasy giant rat, also known as the votsotsa or votsovotsa, is a nesomyid rodent found only in the Menabe region of Madagascar. It is an endangered species due to habitat loss, slow reproduction, and limited range Pairs are monogamous and females bear only one or two young per year. It is the only extant species in the genus Hypogeomys; another species, Hypogeomys australis, is known from subfossil remains a few thousand years old.
The Yanbaru whiskered bat(Myotis yanbarensis) is a species of vesper bat in the genus Myotis.
The New Holland mouse also known as a Pookila is a species of rodent in the family Muridae. It was first described by George Waterhouse in 1843. It vanished from view for over a century before its rediscovery in Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park north of Sydney in 1967. It is found only in south east Australia, within the states of New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria, and Tasmania.
Muennink's spiny rat or Okinawa spiny rat is a species of rodent in the family Muridae. Endemic to Okinawa Island, Japan, its natural habitat is subtropical moist broadleaf forest. The karyotype has 2n = 44. Its sex chromosomes are abnormally large, while the other two species in Tokudaia have lost their Y chromosome. It is found only on the northern part of the island, above 300 m, and is thought to inhabit an area of less than 3 km2.
The Ryukyu spiny rat is a species of rodent in the family Muridae. Endemic to Amami Ōshima island in the Amami Islands of the Ryukyu archipelago of Japan, its natural habitat is subtropical moist broadleaf forest. The karyotype has an odd diploid number, 2n = 25. Like its relative T. tokunoshimensis, it has lost its Y chromosome and SRY gene.
The Otton frog, is a species of frog in the family Ranidae. It is endemic to the islands of Amami Ōshima and Kakeromajima in the Ryukyu Islands, Japan. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests, freshwater marshes, and intermittent freshwater marshes. Once considered a delicacy as a source of food, it is now threatened by habitat loss through deforestation, and predation by introduced mongooses. Otton Frogs have a lifespan of approximately 7 years which is significantly different to common frog species’ life span of 10 -12 years. Due to the isolated island ecosystem, many factors play into the endangerment and the shorter lifespan of the species.
Palmer's chipmunk is a species of rodent in the family Sciuridae, endemic to Nevada. Its natural habitat is temperate forests. It is threatened by habitat loss.
The Christmas Island shrew, also known as the Christmas Island musk-shrew is an extremely rare or possibly extinct shrew from Christmas Island. It was variously placed as subspecies of the Asian gray shrew or the Southeast Asian shrew, but morphological differences and the large distance between the species indicate that it is an entirely distinct species.
Seabirds include some of the most threatened taxa anywhere in the world. For example, of extant albatross species, 82% are listed as threatened, endangered, or critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. The two leading threats to seabirds are accidental bycatch by commercial fishing operations and introduced mammals on their breeding islands. Mammals are typically brought to remote islands by humans either accidentally as stowaways on ships, or deliberately for hunting, ranching, or biological control of previously introduced species. Introduced mammals have a multitude of negative effects on seabirds including direct and indirect effects. Direct effects include predation and disruption of breeding activities, and indirect effects include habitat transformation due to overgrazing and major shifts in nutrient cycling due to a halting of nutrient subsidies from seabird excrement. There are other invasive species on islands that wreak havoc on native bird populations, but mammals are by far the most commonly introduced species to islands and the most detrimental to breeding seabirds. Despite efforts to remove introduced mammals from these remote islands, invasive mammals are still present on roughly 80% of islands worldwide.
The Tokunoshima spiny rat is a rodent found only on the island of Tokunoshima in the Ryukyu Islands of Japan. Due to its small habitat, it is considered endangered. It is commonly found in the secondary and primary subtropical moist broadleaf forests of this island. The karyotype has an odd diploid number, 2n = 45. Like its relative T. osimensis, it is one of the few mammals that lack a Y chromosome and SRY gene.
Yambaru (山原) is the Okinawan and Kunigami name given to the forested northern part of Okinawa Island in Japan. Spanning the northern villages of Higashi, Kunigami, and Ōgimi, Yambaru contains some of the last large surviving tracts of subtropical rainforest in Asia, with many endemic species of flora and fauna. Many southerners fled to the area for refuge during the Battle of Okinawa. In 2016, Yambaru National Park was established and the area was included in a submission for inscription on the UNESCO World Heritage List.
Cat predation on wildlife is the result of the natural instincts and behavior of both feral and owned house cats to hunt small prey, including wildlife. Some people view this as a desirable phenomenon, such as in the case of barn cats and other cats kept for the intended purpose of pest control; but scientific evidence does not support the popular use of cats to control urban rat populations, and ecologists oppose their use for this purpose because of the disproportionate harm they do to beneficial native wildlife. As an invasive species and superpredator, they do considerable ecological damage.
Amami-Ōshima Island, Tokunoshima Island, northern part of Okinawa Island, and Iriomote Island (奄美大島、徳之島、沖縄島北部及び西表島) is a serial UNESCO World Heritage Site consisting of five component parts on four Japanese islands in the Ryukyu Chain of the Nansei Islands. The site was selected in terms of biodiversity for having a diverse ecosystem of plant and animal species that are unique to the region.
In the context of the conservation of endangered species in Japan, and the list below, Endangered Species are those designated by Cabinet order in accordance with the 1992 Act on Conservation of Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora. There are two main types of Endangered Species, National Endangered Species (国内希少野生動植物種) (NES) and International Endangered Species (国際希少野生動植物種) (IES), although there is also provision for Temporarily Designated Endangered Species (緊急指定種), as well as Designated Nationally Endangered Species (特定国内希少野生動植物種)—and businesses dealing with Designated Nationally Endangered Species (特定国内種事業) and Designated Internationally Endangered Species (特定国際種事業).
