Though the Aoshima Island has an area of 0.49 square kilometers,
most of the cats on the island, around a hundred, live in the small village of about 0.1 square kilometers. The feline population density, therefore, works out to be a thousand cats per square kilometer. This is insanely feline!
This village, therefore, is a paradise for cat-lovers but may not for cats who have territorial behaviors. In this village cats' conflicts take place every 10 to 30 minutes.
Round One: A piebald ginger vs another piebald ginger
Round Two: A piebald ginger vs a ginger
Most of the conflicts end only with hissing and growling, but sometimes they develop to fist fights and chases.
What is intriguing is that in many cases two cats fight in a place where are some other cats, but they do not join the fight. The onlookers seem indifferent to the result of the fight. Those who are resting continue to rest, grooming continue to groom, sleeping continue to sleep.
The onlookers seem indiffent to the fight.
Our concern is how similar and how different the Aoshima cats society is from African lion's society, in both of which felines form groups. In lion society individuals in a pride defend their territory in a cooperative manner. When a stranger comes in their territory they roar in chorus and cooperatively chase the intruder.
But lions are so ferocious that their cooperative society is not necessarily peaceful; the biologist Jon Grinnell writes(*1):
In a pride of cats on the Aoshima Island, there are no bellicose leaders
So, where are the leaders? Are they losing their territorial behavior, or having an ability to be satisfied with very tiny territories? Anyway, many of them seem to have an ability to evade a conflict with other cats; this may be their way to survive in such a bustling feline metropolis in a much more peaceful manner than lions'.
If the cats on the Aoshima Island are distinctively able to create a peaceful society, it would be due to their social skills they have developed in their kittenhood.
In the cat colony are some kittens.
The ginger mom plays with her ginger kitten.
The ginger mom seems encouraging her kittens to interact with other cats.
Kittens in the seaside, where are many cats and tourists, play with their siblings, adult cats and tourists. They are in an environment in which they learn how to interact with other individuals.
Cats in a group, however, have an issue - infectious diseases. Cat flu seems to be spreading in the seaside where cats are densely populated.
Some groups of cats include those who sneeze frequently or have running eyes.
Especially, kittens are more vulnerable to virus than adult cats are. There were two ginger kittens on the bank, both were very friendly with tourists, but were suffering from eye disease.
The ginger kitten who is friendly with tourists severely suffers from an eye disease.
One of the ways to protect kittens from infectious diseases is to rear them in a less populated place.
In the village, apart from the shore, there is a half abandoned crop field where live a mom cat and her kittens. They all look healthy. But living in a place where few tourists visit, they seem not used to interact with tourists. They are so cautious of strangers, both humans and cats. When a cat from the shore approaches to them, the mom cat chases him away. When a tourist approaches the kittens, they shy away from him. It seems difficult for a tourist to make friends with this solitary family.
This moo kitten looks healthy but afraid of a stranger.
But they are friendly with an old woman who lives in a nearby house. She showed up and called the kittens. Soon the kittens came to her.
The kittens came near to the tourist.
The moo gets relaxed. In front of a tourist's camera he yawns.
It was amazing that the moo in just a few seconds got friendly with the tourist when the woman introduced the tourist to the kittens.
Not only the kittens but also their mom seemed to have recognised the tourist as not harmful. When the kittens got friendly with the tourist, the mom too was not cautious of the tourist any further.
Among the kittens is a beautiful calico. Behind her is her mom wearing a tuxedo. She is always wary of strangers.
The four kittens are all very cheerful and playful. They began to play in front of the tourist.
The kittens stalk, jump, and run, all by themselves. They exercise without any instruction. What they are doing is a kind of self-learning.
The calico spontaneously practices sprinting.
Contrary to the social ginger mom, the solitary tuxedo mom doesn't play with her kittens; all she is doing is defending her territory from intruders. She seems leaning towards laissez-faire education; she does not teach her kittens hunting skills by herself. She leaves her kittens to their own devices, allowing them to do everything by their curiosity.
Curiosity to the bamboo blind enlivens the kitten.
The calico kitten sniffs, scratches, and wrestles with the bamboo blind. Why she can exercise various movements only with such an ordinary blind is a mystery to us, but her training, without using any commercially available toys, seems going well.
Our concern, while watching some groups of cats on this island, is whether cats can be pack hunters. Why are lions pack hunters while cats are not?
Compared with cats on the mainlands, the cats on the Aoshima Island tend to form groups like lions forming prides. If a pride of cats on the Aoshima Island is nearer to a pride of lion than its counterparts on the mainlands, it would be said that the Aoshima cats may be more probable to become pack hunters.
But the kittens' way of training suggests that they seem genetically programmed to be solitary hunters. The four kittens are seemingly littermates, but they basically exercise independently.
One of the kittens scoots off chasing a fallen leaf blown by a gale of wind, but other do not follow him.
With an appropriate instruction by a human, they may learn what we call 'cooperation'.
Aoshima kittens' pack-hunting dance
It would be controversial whether their pseudo predatory play is conducted in a organised manner or not, but the three kittens trying to catch the straw more or less evoke of lions' pack hunting.
After the play the kittens pretend to share the kill.
If the environment of the island changes and the cats face food shortage when they have no way but to hunt large preys, pack hunting cats may come into existence. We don't know when it occurs, but we can guess where it takes place; Charles Darwin's quote in his Origin of Species may imply that a cat island, if not the Aoshima Island, is highly favorable for a production of pack-hunting cats:
Incidentally, English dictionaries say that the collective term for a group of cats is a 'clowder'.
So what is the difference between a pride and a clowder? One of the possibilities of etymological origin of the term 'pride' is connected with proud/pride, while the 'clowder' is originated from clutter.
The ground is cluttered with cats.
If a cat expert argues that the Aoshima Island is not proud of prides of cats but is cluttered with clowders of cats, we may now have no way to refute it. We now know very little about what is going on in cats' colonies; what is important now is to observe meticulously the feline society on this island and decipher the mystery of it, then light will be thrown on the origin of clowder and its history.
(*1) Jon Grinnell, MODES OF COOPERATION DURING TERRITORIAL DEFENSE BY AFRICAN LIONS, Human Nature, Vol. 13, No. 1, 2002
(*2) In 2015 agricultural damage in Japan by wild deer was 6 billion Yen (50 million USD), by wild boar 5.1 billion Yen (43 million USD).
This village, therefore, is a paradise for cat-lovers but may not for cats who have territorial behaviors. In this village cats' conflicts take place every 10 to 30 minutes.
Round One: A piebald ginger vs another piebald ginger
Round Two: A piebald ginger vs a ginger
Most of the conflicts end only with hissing and growling, but sometimes they develop to fist fights and chases.
What is intriguing is that in many cases two cats fight in a place where are some other cats, but they do not join the fight. The onlookers seem indifferent to the result of the fight. Those who are resting continue to rest, grooming continue to groom, sleeping continue to sleep.
The onlookers seem indiffent to the fight.
Our concern is how similar and how different the Aoshima cats society is from African lion's society, in both of which felines form groups. In lion society individuals in a pride defend their territory in a cooperative manner. When a stranger comes in their territory they roar in chorus and cooperatively chase the intruder.
But lions are so ferocious that their cooperative society is not necessarily peaceful; the biologist Jon Grinnell writes(*1):
This inter-group competition can take the form of lethal raiding, a phenomenon in which the males of one community move stealthily together into the territory of a neighboring group and attack and often kill neighboring males.Though the collective action is violent, individuals seem different; there are two types of lions, leaders and laggards:
If leaders are more likely to be attacked ..., laggards may reduce the risk of injury to themselves while increasing the risk of injury to their leading companion.Meanwhile, in the Aoshima feline society, the cats show no sign of trying to defend their territory in a cooperative manner. They seem all laggard.
In a pride of cats on the Aoshima Island, there are no bellicose leaders
So, where are the leaders? Are they losing their territorial behavior, or having an ability to be satisfied with very tiny territories? Anyway, many of them seem to have an ability to evade a conflict with other cats; this may be their way to survive in such a bustling feline metropolis in a much more peaceful manner than lions'.
If the cats on the Aoshima Island are distinctively able to create a peaceful society, it would be due to their social skills they have developed in their kittenhood.
In the cat colony are some kittens.
The ginger mom plays with her ginger kitten.
The ginger mom seems encouraging her kittens to interact with other cats.
Kittens in the seaside, where are many cats and tourists, play with their siblings, adult cats and tourists. They are in an environment in which they learn how to interact with other individuals.
Cats in a group, however, have an issue - infectious diseases. Cat flu seems to be spreading in the seaside where cats are densely populated.
Some groups of cats include those who sneeze frequently or have running eyes.
Especially, kittens are more vulnerable to virus than adult cats are. There were two ginger kittens on the bank, both were very friendly with tourists, but were suffering from eye disease.
The ginger kitten who is friendly with tourists severely suffers from an eye disease.
One of the ways to protect kittens from infectious diseases is to rear them in a less populated place.
In the village, apart from the shore, there is a half abandoned crop field where live a mom cat and her kittens. They all look healthy. But living in a place where few tourists visit, they seem not used to interact with tourists. They are so cautious of strangers, both humans and cats. When a cat from the shore approaches to them, the mom cat chases him away. When a tourist approaches the kittens, they shy away from him. It seems difficult for a tourist to make friends with this solitary family.
This moo kitten looks healthy but afraid of a stranger.
But they are friendly with an old woman who lives in a nearby house. She showed up and called the kittens. Soon the kittens came to her.
The kittens came near to the tourist.
The moo gets relaxed. In front of a tourist's camera he yawns.
It was amazing that the moo in just a few seconds got friendly with the tourist when the woman introduced the tourist to the kittens.
Not only the kittens but also their mom seemed to have recognised the tourist as not harmful. When the kittens got friendly with the tourist, the mom too was not cautious of the tourist any further.
Among the kittens is a beautiful calico. Behind her is her mom wearing a tuxedo. She is always wary of strangers.
The four kittens are all very cheerful and playful. They began to play in front of the tourist.
The kittens stalk, jump, and run, all by themselves. They exercise without any instruction. What they are doing is a kind of self-learning.
The calico spontaneously practices sprinting.
Contrary to the social ginger mom, the solitary tuxedo mom doesn't play with her kittens; all she is doing is defending her territory from intruders. She seems leaning towards laissez-faire education; she does not teach her kittens hunting skills by herself. She leaves her kittens to their own devices, allowing them to do everything by their curiosity.
Curiosity to the bamboo blind enlivens the kitten.
The calico kitten sniffs, scratches, and wrestles with the bamboo blind. Why she can exercise various movements only with such an ordinary blind is a mystery to us, but her training, without using any commercially available toys, seems going well.
Our concern, while watching some groups of cats on this island, is whether cats can be pack hunters. Why are lions pack hunters while cats are not?
Compared with cats on the mainlands, the cats on the Aoshima Island tend to form groups like lions forming prides. If a pride of cats on the Aoshima Island is nearer to a pride of lion than its counterparts on the mainlands, it would be said that the Aoshima cats may be more probable to become pack hunters.
But the kittens' way of training suggests that they seem genetically programmed to be solitary hunters. The four kittens are seemingly littermates, but they basically exercise independently.
One of the kittens scoots off chasing a fallen leaf blown by a gale of wind, but other do not follow him.
With an appropriate instruction by a human, they may learn what we call 'cooperation'.
Aoshima kittens' pack-hunting dance
It would be controversial whether their pseudo predatory play is conducted in a organised manner or not, but the three kittens trying to catch the straw more or less evoke of lions' pack hunting.
After the play the kittens pretend to share the kill.
If the environment of the island changes and the cats face food shortage when they have no way but to hunt large preys, pack hunting cats may come into existence. We don't know when it occurs, but we can guess where it takes place; Charles Darwin's quote in his Origin of Species may imply that a cat island, if not the Aoshima Island, is highly favorable for a production of pack-hunting cats:
If we... look at any small isolated area, such as an oceanic island, although the number of the species inhabiting it is small, ... yet of these species a very large proportion are endemic,- that is, have been produced there and nowhere else in the world. Hence, an oceanic island at first sight seems to have been highly favorable for the production of new species.What farmers may hope is that some day a pride of cats hunt wild boars and wild deer that damage crops(*2).
Incidentally, English dictionaries say that the collective term for a group of cats is a 'clowder'.
So what is the difference between a pride and a clowder? One of the possibilities of etymological origin of the term 'pride' is connected with proud/pride, while the 'clowder' is originated from clutter.
The ground is cluttered with cats.
If a cat expert argues that the Aoshima Island is not proud of prides of cats but is cluttered with clowders of cats, we may now have no way to refute it. We now know very little about what is going on in cats' colonies; what is important now is to observe meticulously the feline society on this island and decipher the mystery of it, then light will be thrown on the origin of clowder and its history.
(*1) Jon Grinnell, MODES OF COOPERATION DURING TERRITORIAL DEFENSE BY AFRICAN LIONS, Human Nature, Vol. 13, No. 1, 2002
(*2) In 2015 agricultural damage in Japan by wild deer was 6 billion Yen (50 million USD), by wild boar 5.1 billion Yen (43 million USD).
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