📸 PhotoPhoto: High speed railway · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons Source
Kunimasu
Oncorhynchus kawamurae (Kunimasu · クニマス)
💡 Everyday Comparisons for Size, Mass & Speed
- 💡 The female maximum total length of 27.5 cm is 2.5 cm shorter than a 30 cm ruler (Comparison).
- 💡 Thanks to eyed eggs transferred to other lakes in 1935, it was rediscovered in Lake Saiko in 2010 (FishBase).
Reference standards: coach bus ~12 m, mid-size car ~4.9 m, compact car ~1 t, basketball hoop 3.05 m, credit card 8.56 cm.
📖 1. Overview
The kunimasu is a salmonid fish once endemic to Lake Tazawa in Japan that was thought extinct after 1940 before being rediscovered in Lake Saiko in 2010. Its IUCN assessment is Extinct in the Wild (EW, 2019).
🦴 2. Anatomy & Morphology
Females grow up to 27.5 cm and males up to 23.8 cm.
🔍 3. Ecology & Behavior
It is a non-migratory fish living in deep, cold lakes around 90 m deep, and is presumed to feed on mesopelagic or deep-water zooplankton.
🇰🇷 4. Connection to Korea
No direct record connecting this species to Korea has been found.
📚 Sources & References
- • IUCN Red List EW (2019) — https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/110463465/110463483
- • IUCN Red List category EW — latest assessment at iucnredlist.org
- • catalogueoflife.org — 49JF5
- • iucnredlist.org — 110463483
- • wikidata.org — Q3062317
- • commons.wikimedia.org — File:Oncorhynchus nerka kawamurae.jpg
- • fishbase.se — Oncorhynchus-kawamurae.html
- • Silhouette: PhyloPic — Margot Michaud · CC0 1.0 (Congeneric silhouette — Oncorhynchus mykiss)
Recorded dimensions are widely cited representative estimates from public literature and may vary by study or specimen.