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The Japanese wolf (Canis lupus hodophilax) is an extinct subspecies of the gray wolf that was once endemic to the islands of Honshū, Shikoku, and Kyūshū in the Japanese archipelago. It was not found in Hokkaido Island. This indicates that its ancestor may have migrated from the Asian continent through the Korean Peninsula into Japan. It is also known as the Honshū wolf. It was one of two subspecies that were once found in the Japanese archipelago, the other being the Hokkaidō wolf. Prior to its classification by Temminck, it had been long recognized in Japan that Honshu was inhabited by two distinct canids; ōkami (wolf) and yamainu (mountain dog). The Japanese wolf was world's second smallest wolf after Arab wolf (Canis lupus arabs).The remains of a 28,000 year old wolf specimen from the Yana River on the northern coast of arctic Siberia matched the mDNA haplotype of the Japanese wolf, which indicates that they shared common ancestry and a wider distribution. The Japanese wolf is considered to be extinct as the last specimens were recorded at Higashi-Yoshino village in Nara Prefecture, Japan in 1905. Sightings of "short-legged dog like beasts", proposed to be the Japanese wolf, have been claimed since the time of its extinction until the last claim in 1997, but none of these have been verified. In 713, the wolf first appeared on record in Kofudoki itsubun. From 967, historical records indicated the wolf's preference for predating on horse, either wild horses or those in pastures, stables, and villages. In 1701, a lord introduced the first wolf bounty and by 1742 the first professional wolf hunters were using firearms and poison. In 1736, rabies appeared among dogs in eastern Japan, indicating that it had entered from China or Korea, then spread across the nation. Shortly after it spread to the wolf population, turning some wolves from simple horse predators to man-killers that lead to organized wolf hunts. Killing wolves became a national policy under the Meiji Restoration, and within one generation the Japanese wolf was extinct. There are four mounted specimens believed to be Canis lupus hodophilax located at: the National Museum of Nature and Science, Japan; University of Tokyo, Japan; Wakayama University, Japan; Siebold Collection, and the National Museum of Natural History, Leiden, Netherlands.