Wakayama Prefecture, Japan

Last week I spent two nights driving in the area around Mt. Koyasan (34.186176N 135.604409E) and saw lots of smallish, dark sika deer, a charming juvenile serow, over 20 martens (all brown rather than orange), a badger, and, curiously, just one raccoon dog and no foxes at all. The only small mammals I managed to find were a few greater Japanese mice. Dorogawa Bat Cave (34.268919N 135.890902E) and adjacent Mantis Cave (34.268989N 135.891695E) had hibernating greater horseshoe, Hilgendorf’s tube-nosed, and Asian particolored bats and eastern long-fingered myotis (one of the latter could be something else, I’m still checking). In Koya, giant flying squirrels and Ikonnikov’s myotis live in huge Japanese cedars of the ancient Okunoin Cemetery (34.218314N 135.604226E).

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