Researchers trace the evolutionary origins of the Japanese wolf
From The Japan Times:
Little was known about the evolutionary history of the Japanese wolf, a small subspecies of the gray wolf that was once endemic to the islands of Honshu, Shikoku and Kyushu. New DNA research is changing that.
Worshiped for centuries as a divine messenger and protector of farmland, the creature is thought to have gone extinct as Japan marched toward industrialization in the 19th century. The last known specimen of the Japanese wolf was found in 1905.