Japanese River Otter

In celebration of the vast environmental devastation caused by humanity I'm doing paintings of extinct animals! This one is the Japanese River Otter (Lutra lutra whiteleyi). It was hunted nearly to extinction for it's lush fur. After regulations on hunting were setup the remaining population died from pollution before officially being pronounced extinct by the country's Ministry of the Environment in 2012. The photograph I used as reference taken at a zoo in Japan. Since it was taken in sepia tone I decided to play around with the colors a bit.