well, not so much snow for us. my field in yamagata prefecture used to be notorious for the heavy snowfall over 100 cm in accumulation. but the winter 2023-2024 was unusually mild with less snow. and the little snowfall would seriously affect both fauna and flora in this area. i am happy to have heavy snowfall again this winter 2024-2025.

check out a friendly encounter with japanese serow on the other day; kzbin.info/www/bejne/aqm5laJvfsxml9E

いえ、独りで歩いて下山中にニアミスしました。4WDの車ならなんとか登れるぐらいの細い山道（林道）です。詳しい状況はブログに長々と書いてますので、よろしければご覧ください。 sigma-nature-vlog.blogspot.com/2024/03/blog-post_99.html

確かに！　ご指摘ありがとうございます。陽射しが強くて翅裏全体が白飛びして、キタキチョウに特有の斑点が見えませんでした。ハイスピード動画で翅表の斑紋も撮っておきながら、翅裏だけで判断してしまいました。この間違いは恥ずい…。思い込みは怖いです。早速訂正しておきます。返信が遅れてすいませんでした。タンポポに訪花するモンキチョウを私はまだ撮れたことがないのですけど、たまたまなのか、それとも何か理由があるのか、不思議でなりません。

really? if so, that can be explained by Bergmann's rule. the ones shown in my vids are japanese raccoon dog (Nyctereutes viverrinus viverrinus). Another relative subspecies, the ezo raccoon dog (Nyctereutes viverrinus albus) live in hokkaido (northern) island. and the northern subspecies tends to be a little bigger than the main-island subspecies. interestingly, the northern subspecies is known to hibernate in harsh winter, unlike the japanese raccoon dog.

hola! the japanese wolf has been extinct for a long time. es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canis_lupus_hodophilax if this one were a wolf, that would be a ground-breaking discovery of the century. and i can dismiss the possibility that this one was a stray dog because unleashed stray dogs (or feral dogs) have been exterminated almost completely throughout jpn for fear of rabies. i have never seen a stray dog in my neighbourhood. hence this canine animal must be a fox. gracias