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Answer: A The Iriomote wildcat is a primitive cat that was discovered in 1965 and lives only on the island of Iriomote. Discovering a new mammal species has been very rare in the twentieth century, and the find attracted a lot of attention. The cat was described as "the biggest zoological discovery of the century" and as "a living fossil." Among the Iriomote wildcat's distinguishing features are its round eartips, long body, short legs, and brown spots. There are thought to be between 40 and 100 of the cats currently alive. Iriomote Island is the second largest of the Okinawa islands, after the main island of Okinawa. About 90% of it is covered with jungle. Other famous animals that are unique to Okinawa include the Yanbaru kuina (Okinawa rail), a bird that can't fly with a thick red beak and legs, a black-and-white striped chest, and red eyes, and the Yanbaru-tenaga-kogane, a beetle that lives only in the northern part of Okinawa and is closely related to the Japanese gold beetle. Yanbaru means mountain plain or a richly green place deep in the mountains and refers to the area of virgin forest in the northern part of Okinawa Island. The Japanese crested ibis (answer B) is an internationally protected bird with a large beak. It became extinct in Japan, but in January 1999 the Sado Crested Ibis Conservation Center succeeded in hatching and raising an egg from a pair of ibises donated by China. The giant panda (answer C) is an adorable black and white animal often called a "living teddy bear." It lives in the mountains of northern China at altitudes of between 1,000 and 4,000 meters above sea level and eats mainly bamboo leaves and bamboo shoots. |
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