Carl Hubert de Villeneuve’s 1820s sketch.
The last sighting of a Japanese wolf – a subspecies of the grey wolf – was recorded in Nara Prefecture on the 23rd of January, 1905.
In the century before, during the Meiji Restoration, killing the wolves had become a national policy.
A memorial statue now stands in the village of Higashiyoshino, where the last wolf was seen.
The animal is now considered extinct.