Posted by T. T. and P. R. in Aplril 2020
The Iriomote cat is a critically endangered species, living exclusively on the Japanese island of
Iriomote. The island has an area of only some 300 km2, with most parts covered in thick greenery, like a
jungle in the tropical zone. Also living there are very many other animals,
constituting a unique ecosystem in which the Iriomote cat occupies the top of
the food chain. Although many zoologists have investigated the wild life of the
Iriomote cat, the details are not yet fully known.
A biologist and medical scientist, Prof. Naoki Suzuki, attempted
to observe the natural wild life of Iriomote cats by using robot cameras which
can sense an object and take pictures automatically. Prior to introducing this
technique, he learned as much as he could about the living habits of the Iriomote
cat in detail from residents, and he also investigated by himself, spending many
years on the island. He found that one habit of the cat is that they look into all
of the hollows of tree trunks in order
to find food or to utilise it as a nest. To try to capture this, he placed a robot
camera inside a hollow, and succeeded in getting nice pictures of a cat looking
into a hollow, as seen here.
Photograph:
Naoki Suzuki ⓒ. Reprinted with permission by Professor Naoki Suzuki.
|
In 2017 Naoki Suzuki published a book entitled Island of Miracles – Animals of Iriomote
island from Seibundo-Shinkosha. It contains very many photographs of
Iriomote cats and other animals. In the last chapter, entitled The future of the Island of Miracles, he
wrote that “The future of this island lies not in the hands of the animals ... but in the hands of our human beings.”
Our Planet Earth is almost an island of miracles. Until
fairly recently, it contained rich ecosystems which had evolved uniquely on this
Planet. Now, humans have become widespread
throughout the planet and therefore are having a more dominant influence on every
aspect of nature, both positive and negative. Thus the future of this island does
indeed lay in the hands of humans. However, the human race is now almost becoming
a critically endangered species. It seems that humans are not clever enough to
secure their own existence for millions of years ahead. We have to remove our
prejudice of being at the top of an ecosystem and we should recognize our lack
of wisdom to preserve our own nature.
We might now ask, how will future people look back into our
life habits? They will look at us suspiciously, almost in the same way as the
Iriomote cat in the above picture. They will undoubtedly know of their own historical
background, in that their very existence, together with the existence of their
environment, had lain in the hands of past people, especially in the hands of people
living in 21st century.
