Yes. That creature in the cat’s jaws is a rabbit.
The Amami rabbit is a primitive rabbit that is found only Amami Ōshima and Tokunoshima, which are islands that are part of the Ryukyu Islands, which lie to the southwest of the main Japanese archipelago.
Only 2,000 of these rabbits remain, and they are under increasing threat from predation from dogs, cats, and mongoose that have been introduced to their islands. They were given protection in 1921. Before that protection was given, these rabbits were nearly wiped out through unsustainable hunting.
This rabbit is considered a “living fossil,” for it resembles the ancient rabbits that used to be found on the Asian mainland.
This particular image was taken by a motion-activated camera that was set up to catch an image of the rabbits, but instead, it caught this image of a feline predator and its endangered prey.
Feral cats are bad for wildlife. End of story.
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As of 2008, the Amami rabbit was part of a cloning project.
The cats don’t care whether they are clones or not. They’ll kill them just the same.
So what happens if it was a feral dog caught on the camera?
They should kill it!
But, but… according to feline logic, dogs have been long enough for the ecosystem to adapt to their presence.
Probably not here.
Catch the dog, tame it, and give it a good home where it isn’t allowed to run loose unsupervised and kill endangered species!(I have such a dog at home right now–marvelous, spirited little beast! Survived all manner of difficulties in the wild before I got her!) Of course you could do this with the cats, as well, if anyone gave a damn. Dogs often elicit such sympathies; cats rarely do, for whatever reasons. People that get worked up about the killing of feral cats COULD live-trap them, confine them and tame them(and please neuter them in the process!) and find/give them good, responsible homes; but, well, that’s too much trouble of course!
Well put. Perhaps all these cat lovers should ensure compulsory neutering and reduce the human induced cat and kitten abuse. Stop abusing the people who clean up the mess and take responsibility for your animal. If you do not want to do this you should not have them as you are an animal abuser.
wake me up when you find any cat people who care…
Moi.
Um, wake up, then?
An island with a very rare prey species. THIS is an excellent place to try eradication of cats and it might actually work and be worth it.
Or, just release some Amami rabbits in either Australia or Florida, where they are bound to become an extraordinarily fecund invasive species–then there will be plenty around to reintroduce to Japan!
Island species are frequently ill adapted to deal with introduced predators of any type. And it’s generally impossible for those who might take one or two feral /rescue animals to adopt/house ALL of them. The problem is that not all feral animals domesticate well or meet a pet owner’s needs. And if one wants a Persian, being told one “MUST” take the feral shorthair is not going to end well. The arguement that feral cats kill rodents — first, there are native predators that eat rodents. Second, dealing with rodent pests can be done using domestic animals (a few rat terriers might happily do the job of several cats). And third, the evidence indicates that feral cats eat more birds than rodents. The Amami rabbits might well do fine on some other home — or they may not.
Peggy Richter