Theme1) Study on resource use of arboreal small mammals (flying squirrels and squirrels) in natural forests 2) Phylogeographical and biogeographcal study of areboreal small mammals (flying and tree squirrels)
My DreamClarification on ecological and evolutionary relationships between forests and arboreal mammals
Forestry small mammals, Arboreal small mammals, Squirrels
Introduction
Without forest resources, no man could live. Arboreal squirrels could make a suitable model to study the relationships between forest resources and wild mammals, as they completery depend on food and nest resources for forest environments. I and my students are studying food and nest resources used by Siberian flying squirrel in natural forests of Hokkaido. Recently, people focus on conservation and management of wild mammals to consider relationship between human and wild mammals, but the study on wild mammals occurring in mountainious natural forests remains unclear. Although such basic science may be boring, I hope that I can continue this study. Also, I am studying the evolution and phylogeography of squirrels. We can find high diversity of squirrels in Southeas Asia. When I think the evolutionary process of squirrels, I could find the relationship between squirrels and forests. How did the forest dynamics affect the squirrel diversity? To resolve this, now I am studying squirrels in Vietnam and Myanmar. I have reported that the geographical barriers such as large river and mountains could have affected the evolutionary history of squirrels heretofore. Also, I found new species of squirrel in small island of Vietnam. I hope that I can steadily contribute to accumulation of human knowledge.
Young Siberian flying squirrels captured by nest box trap. Also, nest materials are found in the nest box.
List of current research topics
Study on resource utilization of Siberian flying dquirrel in natural forests of Hokkaido
Study on reproductive ecology of Siberian flying dquirrel in natural forests of Hokkaido
Study on resource utilization of small Japanese field mouse in natural forests of Hokkaido
Phylogeographic study on squirrels in the Indochina Peninsula
Basic ecology on pelage color variation of squirrels
Related industries
Natural History, Environmental Science
Affiliated academic society
Mammal Society of Japan, American Society of Mammalogists, Japanese Society of Zoo and Wildlife Medicine, Zoological Society of Japan, Ecological Society of Japan
Academic degree
D. Sci.
License
Veterinarian
Self introduction
I have mainly studied squirrels in Southeast and South Asia for around 30 years, Up to this time, I had conducted research projects in Taiwan, India, China, Thailand, Vietnam, Myanmar, Pakistan, and Japan. When I was young, I had some hobbies such as mountain climbing, reading, and backpack trip in Asia. At present, however, research is most important hobby for me, as research includes some hobbies which I enjoyed before. Research is endless, I hope that I can do research accorrding to the proverb that 'don't forget your first intension'.
obihiro.ac.jp 
