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Japanese Serow Investigation
99.11.20/ Temperature: 8C/ Weather: Partly cloudy/ Wind Direction: SW
Current Asahi Mineral Spring, Asahi Town/ Latitude: N 38 14 19 N / Longitude: 139 59 37 E
Distance Traveled: 0 km (Rest day)On the outer edge of the Bandai Asahi National Park lies the Asahi Mineral Spring Naturalist House, a mountain lodge that on several occasions becomes a center for nature lovers to enjoy the mountains, rivers, forests and wildlife of the nearby national park. Today 7 members of the Japanese Serow Investigation group gathered for one of their several annual investigations. Today's purpose is to gather information about the social habits of the Japanese Serow, which has been added to the list of natural monuments.
Naturalist and leader of the investigation group, Mr. Okasaka, guided me in my first Serow watching experience. Members of the group gathered at 9 A.M. this morning to begin the 4 day investigation. Mt. Asahi stood grandly back beyond the narrow valley of buna beech, Japanese oaks, chestnuts, and stream walnuts. A thinning cloud sat atop the mountain as members of the group split up in different directions to observe the serows of the valley.
As we entered a forest of horse chestnut trees, Mr. Okasaka told the story of two serows, Masato and Yuriko. For each serow in these forests there is a name and a face; the investigation group tries hard not to miss one. "The purpose of our investigations is to find out the social behavior of the serows within a given territory," explained Mr. Okasaka. "The first step to doing so is recognizing each individual serow," he continued.
We walked down into the valley alongside of the Asahi River. Every few steps Mr. Okasaka paused, lifted his binoculars to his face and scanned the hillside on the opposite side of the valley. He and his binoculars seemed to have a special relationship developed over 20 years of serow searching.
As we walked, he explained more about the purpose of the investigation. "Many of the animals in Japan are very plain. Our investigation is one way to have people turn their attention to nature. Serows with names and faces create a kind of friendship between animals and humans. You are not likely to forget a serow that you've given a name to. There are few places in Japan where one can observe wild animals so easily as here in the Asahi Mt. Range. Serows happen to be one of the easiest to observe."
Over the walkie-talkie we received news that a serow had been spotted! Back-tracking for a few minutes we kept our eyes peeled on the slope to our left. "There it is," said Mr. Okasaka excitedly. "It's one of the new serow born this spring." I was still trying to make out the furry silhouette against the tangled forest. Sure enough there was a young serow meandering along, feeding off of various plants along the way.
We watched the serow for over an hour. Mr. Okasaka meticulously noted all of the serows unique characteristics and jotted down a drawing identical to the small face I could see through the pinhole view of the telescope. We spotted another one! This time what I thought was a lump of snow far off in the distance was confirmed to be a serow. We waited for close to hour for it to wake up with no luck. Our entire morning and afternoon was spent meandering through the valley, waiting for serows to move, and observing the serows daily grazing and napping. The club has developed both exciting and relaxing way for people to enjoy the nature of Asahi.
Mr. Okasaka hopes that the investigations which have been carried out for over 20 years will eventually benefit the relationship between wildlife and humans. "Unless we know the ecosystems of different wildlife as well as their living habits, we can't be sure that human solutions to problems with wildlife will be solved." Though this is one motivation for the investigations, perhaps the biggest factor that Mr. Okasaka and his friends like serows best.
Greg
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