Range Description

This species is endemic to Japan, where it is found on Honshu, Kyushu, Shikoku (Wilson and Reeder, 2005), and Shodoshima but no other small islands. The Environmental Agency of Japan (1979) reported that there were many in Fukui (Honshu), Miyazaki and Oita (Kyushu) but less in Ibaraki, Osaka, Chiba and Tokyo (Honshu) prefectures. Kurose et al (2001) suggest that genetic distances among Japanese populations were much smaller than the continental one. Nowadays the badger’s distribution is declining.