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Summary

   An endangered species IA
   Bought in 1905
   Carnivores, eared seal, an original species in Japan

   Around the time of the Meiji Restoration, Japanese sea lions inhabited in the Japanese territorial waters. They especially prospered on the Kamitsushima Island in the Izu Area and on the Takeshima Island in the Japan sea. In Yura city, Wakayama, Japanese sea lions were preserved and there were at most 250 of them. The last record about Japanese sea lion was made in 1974 when a young one was caught in the sea around the Rebunto Island. No other record has been found after that, so it is believed that they are extinguished.
   The total number of the specimen of Japanese sea lions is said to be 15; some are kept in foreign countries, one is kept in the British Museum, three are kept in the Netherlands, and the rest( around 10) are kept in Japan, in some public spaces such as the Tennoji Zoo. However, surprisingly, Kishiwada High School keeps two specimens. The students at Kishiwada High School made a research about the specimens by using genetic sequence and they found that the specimens were Japanese sea lions.