The Japanese wolf. The Bonin thrush. The Japanese otter and sea lion.
All are species that after flourished on the Japanese archipelago, pushed to extinction by overhunting and habitat loss.
Japan’s native wildcats aren’t on this tragic listing, however they’re teetering on the brink.
Don’t confuse these native species with the domesticated felis catus: Japan’s inhabitants of practically 9 million home cats is rising yearly and the nation is at present within the midst of a so-called “cat boom.” Consumer appetites bear that out: There have been solely three cat cafes in all of Japan in 2005 — a quantity that was estimated to be round 600 in 2021. Meanwhile, within the 2010s, Japanese authors wrote extra books on cats (5,400) than on Buddhism or baseball.
Only about 100 animals of every of Japan’s two wildcat species survive immediately, placing each getting ready to extinction together with a rising listing of greater than 3,700 different species nationwide, a development that conservationists say is essential to sluggish not only for the sake of Japan’s surroundings however for its cultural heritage as effectively.
Unique animals
The two remaining cat species stay in very completely different environments and climates, however they do share one factor: an origin story.
First there may be the chameleonic Tsushima leopard cat, resident of the western island between Kyushu and the Korean Peninsula. Then, there may be the gourmand Iriomote cat, next-door neighbors with tropical paradise Ishigaki in Okinawa Prefecture.
Signage on a street on Okinawa’s Iriomote Island warning motorists to be careful for wildcats.
| Iriomote Wildlife Conservation Center
Both are roughly the identical measurement as domesticated felines and are descendants of the leopard cat, a species native to continental Asia. During the final Ice Age, Asia was linked to Japan through land bridges because of decrease sea ranges. Researchers estimate the species crossed over and diverged from the leopard cat 100,000 years in the past, solely to be left on their present islands when sea ranges rose.
Humans have lived alongside the Tsushima leopard cat for a superb portion of its lengthy historical past — though it’s been something however harmonious.
“Most people assume that wildcats live deep in the forest, but actually they prefer the village, the garden and the rice field — and bother locals so much that people have a very bad relationship with them,” explains Takashi Shibahara, chief conservationist on the Tsushima Wildlife Conservation Center.
The noticed Tsushima leopard cat is distinctive for its seasonal shapeshifting. They are plump within the winter and slim in the summertime, with patterned coats that change together with the seasons. For this motive, it is vitally troublesome for rangers to establish and observe them. Nonetheless, Shibahara estimates that there are round 90 to 100 cats at present dwelling on the island.
“We hear that there used to be around 300 (approximately a century ago), so it’s our mission to restore the population to 300,” Shibahara says.
In the ’90s and early 2000s, the inhabitants had plunged to 80 because of rampant roadkill incidents, ailments from home cats and wild canine assaults. The Tsushima cat disappeared altogether from Tsushima’s extra populated decrease island, the place locals say the cats used to reside.
Well over 1,000 kilometers to the south, the Iriomote cat is outstanding for its resilience: It occupies the smallest habitat of any wildcat on Earth. Iriomote has an space of lower than 300 sq. kilometers — Tsushima is over two occasions greater — a constrained surroundings that has led the Iriomote cat to have a human-esque urge for food for the whole lot.
A Tsushima leopard cat often known as Beny Sumo that misplaced its leg in a deer entice.
| Tsushima Wildlife Conservation Center
“Most types of cats prefer mice or fish and eat primarily one food source,” says Wataru Ishihara on the Iriomote Wildlife Conservation Center. “But the Iriomote cat wouldn’t be able to survive if it did that on tiny Iriomote Island. So it eats everything — crabs, frogs, snakes, lizards and birds. It’s a really unique characteristic.” Unlike home cats, Iriomote cats usually are not afraid of water and may even be seen swimming in rivers every so often.
Their inhabitants can be estimated to be round 100. Ishihara says that the inhabitants has stopped dropping during the last 10 years — though the middle does not know what number of wildcats there was dwelling on the island. Still, this tiny inhabitants marks the species as critically endangered. And neither the Tsushima nor Iriomote cats are in a position to develop their populations with any consistency due to one deadly motive, eclipsing all the remaining: cars.
Indeed, the cats’ choice for the various meals sources on provide in cities and cities places them in shut proximity to one in every of their greatest killers. Roadkill incidents wipe out practically 5% of each species 12 months after 12 months. In 2022, as an illustration, 4 wildcats have been killed by automobiles in Iriomote and 7 in Tsushima. In the final dozen years, as many as 9 in Iriomote and fifteen in Tsushima have been killed by automobiles in individual years.
“Because the population is so small, this is huge damage to the species,” says Ishihara. “It’s the single biggest risk to the cats.”
Mixed bag of measures
Both islands are growing insurance policies and bettering infrastructure to counter roadkill incidents. In Tsushima, the federal government has put in warning street indicators, constructed underpasses and created posters promoting protected driving on the island, Shibahara says.
“There are the most incidents in November and December, when the young kittens become independent and look for their own territory,” he says. “We are reducing the amount (of accidents) a little each year.” Accidents peaked between 2010 and 2015, however nonetheless quantity over 5 per 12 months in recent years.
An underpass designed to let Iriomote cats safely cross a street on the Okinawa Prefecture island of the identical title.
| Iriomote Wildlife Conservation Center
Iriomote has applied a very aggressive coverage marketing campaign. Most of the accidents happen on the ring street that circles the island, so Iriomote has been trying to make the route as roadkill-proof as potential. In addition to indicators and underpasses, the island has been putting in gutters and fences that stop cats from flitting out from the forest onto the street. They have additionally constructed textured stripes that vibrate and alert cats of oncoming automobiles, and lower down roadside brush. The wildlife heart launched a singular marketing campaign to advertise safer driving by way of the gamified app yuriCargo, the place contributors can accumulate reward coupons for driving safely.
Moving ahead, roadkill incidents will proceed to be the one greatest menace to each wildcat species. But human improvement and intervention have led to different challenges. On Tsushima, the deer inhabitants has swollen to between 40,000 and 50,000 — 10 occasions what conservationists view as a sustainable quantity, Shibahara notes. Deer traps, typically unlawful ones arrange by residents, have taken out quite a lot of cats.
“The government has been successful at cracking down on illegal traps,” explains Shibahara. “We’ve seen fewer of those incidents, but we still need to reduce the deer population to its ideal number.”
Diseases unfold from home cats are additionally a significant menace to the Tsushima leopard cat, particularly feline immunodeficiency virus (often known as FIV or “cat AIDS”), which might doubtlessly race by way of the inhabitants. Currently three contaminated Tsushima leopards are in custody.
Meanwhile on Iriomote, tourism and financial improvement have change into a rising menace by infringing on the cats’ already extraordinarily restricted habitat. The variety of vacationers visiting this tiny island is predicted to double because of it just lately being named a World Natural Heritage website in addition to the event of a brand new resort.
An indication made by youngsters on Tsushima island to warn motorists to be careful for Tsushima leopard cats. The cats’ choice for the various meals sources on provide in cities and cities places them in shut proximity to one in every of their greatest killers: automobiles.
| Tsushima Wildlife Conservation Center
“It’s crucial that tourists cooperate with safe driving,” Ishihara says. “But a portion of drivers still drive very quickly.” Iriomote has additionally put in cameras throughout the island to watch injured cats and kittens who usually are not receiving correct care.
It’s clear that each islands want the views of locals, drivers and guests to proceed to evolve.
“People viewing the Tsushima cat in a positive light is a very recent development,” explains Shibahara. “We’ve started to see the perspective change, and people want to do something for the cats. I would love for more people to prioritize our wildcats.”
A paradigm shift
Tsushima and Iriomote have used Japanese individuals’s love of cats to gasoline help for these species getting ready to extinction. But Japan has over 3,700 different endangered species — a quantity recorded on the “Red List” that screens the nation’s at-risk species, and one that’s continually rising. The lack of individual species can set off broader ecosystem disruption. For occasion, the extinction of the Japanese wolf performed a job within the unhealthy explosion of the deer inhabitants and ensuing harm to native vegetation.
In essentially the most recent update to the Red List in 2019 — the subsequent update shall be revealed in 2024 — 40 species have been added. Quite a lot of species have gone extinct in Japan within the twenty first century, together with native species of bats and butterflies.
Iriomote has applied a very aggressive coverage marketing campaign to curtail roadkill incidents, putting in indicators warning motorists and building underpasses for the cats to forestall them from being hit.
| Iriomote Wildlife Conservation Center
The Environment Ministry explains that, whereas many endangered species decreased in quantity because of improvement and overhunting up to now, new challenges have emerged.
“In recent years, the rising number of endangered species — especially aquatic insects, amphibians and freshwater fish — is due to the decrease in rice fields and agricultural ponds due to human population decline and changes in farming approaches and techniques,” writes Honami Hayase, an official on the ministry’s Rare Species Conservation Promotion Office. Due to constrained budgets and inhabitants decline in rural areas, most areas lack the funding and human assets to hold out countermeasures.
But it isn’t all doom and gloom. Conservationists in China and Japan, respectively, have efficiently bred some species, together with the crested ibis and the rock ptarmigan, a kind of grouse, in captivity and launched them into the wild, serving to these populations get well. Along comparable strains, Tsushima has partnered with zoos in Kyushu to breed Tsushima leopard cats in captivity. Shibahara is at present coaching a number of cats to catch mice and run from hazard.
“You can see wildcats at eight different zoos, which I recommend,” Shibahara says. “(Visitors) will develop a more sophisticated understanding and … learn to support the cats.”
Ishihara says that whereas he’s grateful for help for the Iriomote cat, there’s a a lot broader biodiversity disaster at play. Lower biodiversity in Japan threatens to extend harm from the local weather disaster and hurt human industries like agriculture and tourism. Hayase additionally factors out that in Japan, nature is inextricably linked with cultural heritage, from salmon in Hokkaido, to the snow monkeys of Nagano, to those wildcats.
“Not just our wildcats, but all endangered species are a global problem,” Ishihara says. “Maybe our wildcats might be an inspiration for individuals to begin caring for the wild animals in their very own areas.”
Doctors function on a Tsushima leopard cat often known as Beny Sumo. The cat needed to have its leg eliminated after it bought caught in a deer entice.
| Tsushima Wildlife Conservation Center
