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 until recently. This stream was alternatively called "Kemer Brook" ("Kemer Çayı") or, especially in western sources, as the "Caravan Bridge Brook", by the name of a historic bridge, also celebrated in literature, which checked the entry into the city of İzmir throughout the 19th century. The flow of this stream varies from a full rush of water in winter to a trickle, even a dry bed, in summer. In the light of descriptions by Aristides and other accounts dating from the Roman imperial age, this stream seems, in fact, to be the weakest candidate for association with Homer's Meles. Roman-era