I found this little guy recently stretched out on the road. It wasnt squished and I couldnt see any injury, so maybe he died of a heart attack!
Its a Japanese marten, Ten in Japanese, (martus melampus).
The first time I saw one was back when we first moved to the village. Someone gave us a single hen to raise for eggs, and one night I heard a commotion so went outside with a flashlight to check and caught a marten exiting the coop with the dead hen clamped in its jaws.
It ran off into the forest and a few minutes later I heard 2 different animals screaming at each other, so some other forest critter that likes chicken was obviously trying to take it from the marten.
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Thanks Jake, I saw these as fleeting images that crossed the road as I cycled Japan this year. Mostly in Tohoku region. I thought ferret at first but the ears were slightly different. They move really fast.
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