Bibliotheca Herpetologica 19(8)

Dodd, C. K. Jr. 2025. Herpetology in the Report of the First Scientific Expedition to Manchuokuo. Bibliotheca Herpetologica 19(8):108–115.

In 1931, the Empire of Japan invaded and occupied Manchuria and in 1932 proclaimed the puppet state of Manchuokuo (spelled Manchukuo in the West). In 1933, they invaded the Chinese province of Jehol, formerly known as Rehe, to form a buffer zone between China and the puppet state of Manchuokuo. The First Scientific Expedition to Manchuokuo (FSEM) occurred during the transition from Han Chinese rule to Japanese rule, when Imperial Japan was interested in demonstrating to the world it could create a modern multi-ethnic Pan-Asian state. The FSEM centered its activities in Jehol between Chifeng, Chaoyang, and Chengde, the largest cities at the time, with occasional forays north or south of these cities, such as to the wetlands along the Chaogedu’er River in what is today the Yudaokou Grassland Forest Scenic Park.

The FSEM reported six species of amphibians and 10 species of reptiles from Jehol. No salamanders were found. The frogs Bombina orientalis, Dryophytes japonicus, and Kaloula borealis are now known to be present but were not observed. One lizard, Scincella modesta, and three snakes, Euprepiophis mandarinus, Oocatochus rufodorsatus, Orientocoluber spinalis, also were not recorded, although they are present on the western side of the Bohai Sea. No fossil amphibians or reptiles were found based on the summer fieldwork in northern Manchuokuo in 1933, but it was later noted that fossils of Pelodiscus maackii were found in Quaternary deposits near where Tokunaga had worked.