Japanese badger Japanese badger The Japanese badger ("Meles anakuma") is a species of carnivoran of the family Mustelidae, the weasels and their kin. Endemic to Japan, it is found on Honshu, Kyushu, Shikoku, and Shodoshima. It shares the genus "Meles" with the Asian and European badgers. In Japan it is called by the name "nihonanaguma" (ニホンアナグマ), lit. "Japan hole-bear". Japanese badgers are smaller (average length in males, in females) and less sexually dimorphic (except in the size of the canine teeth) than their European counterparts. Tail length is between . This species is rather smaller on average than the European badger but
River Meles on its banks. No fewer than six small streams flow into the Gulf of İzmir between the northeastern tip of its outlying waters, where old Smyrna was built, to the city's ancient hilltop castle commanding the inner Gulf's southern shores (Kadifekale today, Pagus and Mount Pagus in ancient times) on the slopes of which, according to tradition, Alexander the Great had the dream of refounding a new Smyrna. Among these, the stream which rises ten miles south of the castle and flows round the base of its mountain had acquired the name of Meles in modern times and kept it