The Japanese serow is a cattle relative from Japan’s mountain forests. Both sexes hold territories and live alone.
A dark swelling below each eye releases a scented fluid.
Some Japanese serows live near the upper forest limit throughout the year. On Mount Fuji, they feed on herbs and shrubs on open volcanic slopes from spring to autumn. Forest and forest-edge trees provide feeding places in winter.
Researchers conducted 50 days of direct observation on northern Mount Fuji, at elevations of 2,000–2,900 metres, between July 2017 and September 2019. They searched with binoculars and a telescope and recorded locations and food plants. The highest serow sighting was at 2,890 metres in August 2018.
In summer, serows ate plants including Aconogonon weyrichii and Salix reinii on open slopes; larch twig tips were also used in autumn. In winter, they ate fir leaves and deciduous-tree twigs protruding above the snow in forest and forest-edge habitats. The authors interpreted this as seasonal use of exposed slopes and forests that retain winter forage.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.
Miyazaki Prefecture’s official account reports a further decline in serows in its 2018–2019 survey. It identifies habitat deterioration and natural-forest logging as concerns, and considers pressure from increasing sika deer a possible factor. The prefecture’s protection guidelines call for conserving natural forest, managing sika deer numbers and strengthening enforcement to prevent serows from being hunted.