Pufferfish in 2002: Inflate and avoid

Japan requires training and exams after 20th-century restaurant deaths. The licence is a public-health instrument, not a gourmet badge. Hobbyists keep freshwater and brackish tetraodontids (e.g. figure-eight, Mbu). They share the beak and inflate; they are not all Takifugu. Four fused tooth plates continuously grow and must be worn on hard prey -- a dental bill, not a cartoon.

Many coastal species are Least Concern; some endemics and heavily fished Takifugu stocks are not. Resilience here is mid-pack, not a free pass. Pufferfish is one of 24 types in this animals atlas. The pages treat it as a full system -- history, anatomy, operating principles, culture, icons, future pressure and market shape -- not a ranking of a best species.

Scores compare the pufferfish with the other 23 types on speed, intelligence, range, resilience, cultural impact and ecological role. They are relative editorial marks. Resilience high means more secure; low means threatened. The family is mixed; fugu fisheries are regulated more as toxin law than as a single Red List story.