Animals

****That's not hinna at all!****

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A list of the various kinds of animals that have appeared throughout the story, either as comrades, wild animals, or as hunt.

## Media Info

### Manga Debut

Vol. 1 Ch. 1

**Ussuri brown bear** (also known as Ezo brown bear and the black grizzly bear) is a subspecies of the brown bear. The brown bear is found in the Ussuri krai, Sakhalin, the Amur Oblast, northeastern China, the Korean peninsula, and Hokkaido.

Brown bears possess a frightening amount of stamina and speed. They are capable of chasing down and killing deer. Anything that a brown bear can't finish in one meal they bury inside a mound, which is off limits to other animals. When a brown bear comes out of hibernation it cannot eat anything because its stomach is still shriveled.

Bears play an important role in the lives of the Ainu, both spiritually and practically. The Ainu refer to brown bears as *Kimun Kamuy* and consider them special among animal *kamuy*. It's considered an act of prestige to raise a bear cub in the *kotan*. For one or two years bear cubs are raised in cages, *heperset*. When the time comes, the bear is sent off back to the gods in the ceremony of *Iomante*.

The bears that fail to go into hibernation are referred to as *Matakirap*, "those that move in winter". They are very aggressive and dangerous. Bears that eat humans are seen as evil gods, *Wen Kamuy*. It's believed that when a brown bear kills a human its cursed to never eat anything else, as they no longer fear humans and turn violent. After death, *Wen Kamuy* go to a hell called *Teine pokna mosir*.

According to Tetsuzou Nihei, adult female bears that don't have cubs are more likely to become aggressive with time and attack humans. As an experienced hunter, Nihei claims that all bears share certain habits. For example, when a bear doubles back on its tracks, it jumps into a thicket on the mountain side of the path to circle behind the hunter.

Despite their large heads, brown bears have relatively small brains. Since they won't die unless hit in the brain, Ainu hunters avoid shooting the head at all. When trying to throw off their pursuers, bears walk backwards along their own tracks. Every part of the bear is quite valuable: its fur and dried gall bladder (a natural remedy) are sold for a lot of money; bear fat is used for healing wounds and burns; the meat is cooked into delicious meals.

Sometimes brown bears use fallen hollowed out trees as their dens. If there are icicles at the mouth of the cave or odd, earthy scent, then there's a possibility that a bear's den must be nearby. There's an Ainu belief that a brown bear will never kill a human that enters its den.

There's a type of bear attack called *rikosinot*: the bear bites down on its target and throws it up into the air using its incredible dorsal strength. Bear toys with its prey, repeatedly tossing it up and letting it crash to the ground.

Adult bearBear cubBear's denAinu bear cageBear tracks

## Media Info

### Manga Debut

Vol. 1 Ch. 2

**The Hokkaido wolf**, also known as the Ezo wolf and the Sakhalin wolf, is an extinct subspecies of gray wolf that once inhabited coastal north-east Asia. It was exterminated in Hokkaido during the Meiji Restoration period in the 1890s, when American-style agricultural reforms incorporated the use of strychnine-laced baits to kill livestock predators. When the deer died off in droves and the wolves lost their prey,
they started hunting livestock. Humans and their traps exterminated the rest of the wolves. Edwin Dun is deemed responsible for initiating government policies to eradicate wolves, which eventually drove the Hokkaido wolf to extinction. The last written record of the Hokkaido Wolf was in Hakodate, 1896. A fur trader named Matsushita Kumazuchi left a note that said simply "I have obtained several wolf pelts."

Wolves are animals that hunt in groups. The wolf pack usually consists of 4-5 wolves. The pack adheres to an hierarchy with its core being a pair consisting of the strongest male and its female. Only this pair can mate and give birth to pups. Other wolves hunt and "babysit" for their pups. During the hunt, wolves show excellent team play under their respective roles.

Wolves possess amazing strength and stamina: they can match a human's top speed and keep it up all night. They're also very cautious and intelligent: a wolf's brain to body size ratio is 30% larger than a dog's. Their sense of smell is extremely sharp: it's 10,000 of times better than a human's and they can distinguish 3 billion different scents. However, the wolfs sense of smell is duller in some areas. Plants or manmade objects are not an important part of a wolfs life, and their discernment of such scents is weaker. Wolves are able to pinpoint a single prey animal several kilometers away, as well as sense emotions through body odor. Wolves smell each other's posteriors in order to ascertain emotions and physical condition.

Wolf feces contain a high amount of nitric acid (an ingredient in gunpowder). The flame temperature is very high, and the smoke rises straight and tall into the air without spreading out. It was historically used to make smoke signals.

When a wolf begins to stalk a person, one way to escape is to drop something onto the ground. Wolves are naturally very curious, so they'll get distracted by investigating what was dropped. Wolves display a special kind of behavior, when they track an unfamiliar person and observe them from afar.

In Ainu, wolves are called *Horkew Kamuy*, "howling gods".

Wilk had a special affinity for wolves. Notably, his name also means "wolf" in Polish. He and his daughter Asirpa saved a wolf pup from a bear and named it Retar. According to Satoru Noda, Retar's bond with Asirpa is built on trust and respect. The wolf does not understand human words, but he can see through the essence of man. As such, Retar treats Asirpa as family.

Retar, one of the last Ezo wolvesRetar and his mateEzo wolf pups

## Media Info

### Manga Debut

Vol. 1 Ch. 3

**Ezo squirrel** is a subspecies of the red squirrel species that inhabits Hokkaido.

They're small animals whose diet primarily consists of nuts, which makes their meat tasty. In late autumn before hibernation, they bury nuts in the ground to store them.

## Media Info

### Manga Debut

Vol. 1 Ch. 5

The horse is a domesticated, odd-toed, hoofed mammal. It has a long history of being domesticated in Central Asia, the Middle East, and North Africa.

They're intelligent animals that can show their emotions in their facial expressions.

Dosanko, a horse breed from Hokkaido, is very powerful, and can carry seven people.

## Media Info

### Manga Debut

Vol. 1 Ch. 6

**Mountain hare**, or **Ezo hare** is a Palearctic hare that is largely adapted to polar and mountainous habitats.

In Ainu, hares are called *isepo*, which means "small creatures that cry 'iii'". Despite their size, *isepo* don't have a lot of edible parts, so their meat is used for *citatap*. The cartilage in the ears is edible.

There are many beliefs and legend about hares in Ainu culture. In one such legend, it's explained how ezo hares got the black spots on their ear tips. Long, long ago, the deer once had legs like the hare does now. He could run on the surface of the snow, and it was impossible for hunters to catch him. But one day, the hare tricked the deer and traded legs with him. Realizing he'd been tricked, the furious deer threw a burning brand at the hare.

According to a custom, the man who catches the hare gets to eat the eyes.

If a hare is just standing around during the middle of the day, that means it's preparing to escape oncoming bad weather.

## Media Info

### Manga Debut

Vol. 2 Ch. 13

The Sakhalin sculpin is a species of fish that is found in eastern Russia to northern Japan.

They like cold water, so Ainu fishermen prefer to fish for them in winter when they've built up a nice layer of fat. Sculpins always come up close to the bank when they need to sleep, and it's easy to catch them with a *raomap*.

## Media Info

### Manga Debut

Vol. 2 Ch. 13

**The Japanese otter** is an extinct species of otter formerly widespread in Japan

The Japanese river otter was extensively hunted for its valuable pelt. Their numbers dropped drastically during the Meiji and Taisho eras, and by the 1950's the Hokkaido subspecies of otter had gone extinct.

In Ainu, river otters are called *esaman*. *Esaman* show up sometimes in old folk tales, they're incredibly forgetful *kamuy*. The Ainu would never eat river otter or even speak their names during *Iomante* or other important ceremonies so they wouldn't forget any important steps. Eating *esaman* before going out on a hunt was allowed only after making all the preparations, so that nothing was forgotten.

Otters were used in Ainu cuisine. Unlike hares, river otters had a lot of fat beneath their fur. The bone on the back of its skull was thin enough to crack open and scoop out the brain, which was then eaten with salt. Boiled river otter heads were considered an extremely delicious delicacy, and there are records of it being consumed frequently.

## Media Info

### Manga Debut

Vol. 3 Ch. 22

**Ezo deer** is a subspecies of the sika deer.

In Ainu, deer are called *yuk* which means prey; they're not considered *kamuy*. Deer are an essential part of the Ainu way of life. They're used for many things, e.g. for making boots from deerskin, and *makanit* (arrow footings) from the shin bones of a deer. Ainu believe that the god who rules over the deer spread yuk all over the land so that we humans would have something to eat.

In the olden days, there were a lot of deer, more than there are now. But one winter the snow was so deep that the deer couldn't dig deep enough to reach food, and a lot of them died. As Asirpa says, the deer were so easy to catch that people must have stopped treating them with the proper respect. This angered the gods, and they refused to send any more down.

Records from 1879 (Meiji 11) do indicate that weather patterns during that winter were abnormal. The lack of prey was one of the factors that led to the extinction of the Hokkaido Wolf.

## Species

### Japanese

* 北海道犬
* アイヌ犬

## Media Info

### Manga Debut

Vol. 3 Ch. 22

The **Hokkaido dog** (also called Ainu-ken, Seta, Ainu dog) is a breed of dog originating from Japan, Hokkaido.

Ainu dogs were bred to survive the harsh conditions of hunting in Hokkaido. Their triangular upright ears provide excellent hearing, and their small eyes minimize potential injuries from branches while they're running through a forest. Their small curled tails don't get in the way when running in narrow spaces.

Ainu dogs are very loyal to their owners and follow orders well.

The breed was trained by the Ainu to be fearless when going up against bears. They're patient and will continue hunting in harsh environments. These qualities make them ideal hunting dogs.

## Media Info

### Manga Debut

Vol. 4 Ch. 31

**Steller's sea eagle** is a large diurnal bird of prey endemic to Northeast Asia, where it lives in Russia, Korea, Japan, China, and Taiwan.

The female sea eagle is bigger than the male, and it grows to a length of 90 cm. Its wingspan can be as much as 2.5 meters across.

The Ainu call sea eagles *Kapacir Kamuy*. Sea eagle feathers have been prized as the highest class of arrow feather since the time of Toyotomi Hideyoshi. The wing and tail feathers of an eagle are strong and sturdy, so they're perfect to use for fletching arrows. They were a valuable trading commodity between the Ainu and the Japanese.

The Ainu use special hooks to hunt for eagles called *kapacirap*.

## Media Info

### Manga Debut

Vol. 4 Ch. 35

**Ezo owl**, also known as the Ural owl, is a large nocturnal owl.

Ezo owls mate for life and even though they don't change a mate, every year at about this time they engage in courtship calling during the night. However, if one of the owls dies, the other will find another mate, which is only natural, since they want to leave behind as many children as they can.

In Ainu, Ezo owls are called *kunnerek* (night-crying) *kamuy* or isosanke (prey-bestowing) *kamuy*. Their names come from their connection to bear hunting: if you hear an owl's hoot at night and walk in that direction, you're sure to find a bear.

## Description

### Status

Alive

The **Ezo red fox** is a subspecies of red fox widely distributed in Hokkaido, Sakhalin, the Kuril Islands and the surrounding islands of Japan.

In Ainu, foxes are called *cironnup*. Hunters use a special trap to capture foxes: a two-forked pole with fish tied to it as lure. The fox leaps up to get at the fish and get its forelegs trapped in the fork.

## Gallery

Japanese Raccon Dog/Tanuki (Nyctereutes procyonoides viverrinus)Common/Northern Minke Whale (Balaenoptera acutorostrata)Orca/Killer Whale (Orcinus orca)Japanese Boar (Sus scrofa leucomystax)Kamchatka Gull (Larus canus kamtschatschensis)Long-Tailed Tit (Aegithalos caudatus)White-Tailed Eagle (Haliaeetus albicilla)Eurasian Woodcock (Scolopax rusticola)Hokkaido Frog (Rana pirica)Migratory Locust (Locusta migratoria)Siberian Musk Deer (Moschus moschiferus)Domestic Red Fox (Vulpes vulpes amicus)Domestic Dog (Canis lupus familiaris) - Sakhalin Husky/Karafuto KenBeluga Whale (Delphinapterus leucas)Mongolian Wolf (Canis lupus chanco)Eurasian Griffon (Gyps fulvus)Melissa Arctic (Oeneis melissa)Ezo/Hokkaido Salamander (Hynobius retardatus)