On the Aoshima Island, the feline population is apparently 120, while humans 15.
We can't help wondering how so many cats survive on this island on which live so few people to feed them. What do the cats feed on?
On the island live some bird species; one of them is a heron.
11:48:36 A ginger goes down towards a pier at the end of which is a heron.
11:50:32 Gingerly stalks, he arrives at around four meters from the prey.
11:51:28 The ginger rushes to the prey but fails to catch it.
11:51:58 The ginger wanders about the place where the heron has been.
What is noticeable is that, even on Aoshima island where some cats form groups like lions do, the cats are basically solitary hunters. While the ginger went hunting, other cats, unlike lions, didn't join him, just watching him failing, or even didn't watch him. Most of them seemed indifferent to other cats' hunting. They seem to have no idea of becoming pack hunters.
It is uncertain whether cats' hunting success rate would improve if they become pack hunters, but, anyway, it is almost certain that natural preys on this small island are so scarce that it would be difficult for a hundred of cats to subsist only on natural preys.
So, the cats must have some other ways to get food.
One of the ways to get food is to forage food from tourists. A tourist resting on a bench is an easy target. A mackerel tabby knows well that the tourist, unlike a heron, does not flee even the cat approaches straight to the target. The cat's target, however, is not the tourist himself but his backpack in which is possibly some food.
A mackerel tabby foraging in a tourist's bag
This way, however, as well, is not promising, for not all tourists have cat food.
The chances to get food are more probable in afternoon when the boat is coming to pick up tourists who still have plentiful cat food that is scheduled to be given to the cats on the island.
14:33:09 Dozens of cats come from nowhere to a potential food feeder.
Why can the cats find possible feeder so immediately? The zoologist John Bradshaw writes in his Cat Sense (*1):
14:34:50 Dozens of cats come to tourists near the port to begin pack begging.
There are notices alerting tourists that feeding cats are allowed only in a designated place near the community center and not allowed near the port. But since they are written in Japanese, foreign tourists and domestic cats who do not read Japanese have an extravagant party near the port.
14:38:24 The cats begin to put pressure on the tourist. The advance guard is a brown tabby who is brave and bold enough to press the lap of the tourist who is forced to drop food.
Chaotic meal has begun. The advance guard is a brown tabby, who is brave enough to pounce on the tourist. When he pressed the tourist's lap, she dropped food on the ground. Some zoologists may point out its resemblance with an experiment of Skinner box, in which a pig presses a lever on a wall and then find food dropped from a dispenser, learning how to get food.
14:38:27 Despite the tabby's struggle, the tourist does not drop much food. The tabby puts pressure more violently, while his entourages eat food dropped on the ground.
We see that beneficiaries of the tabby's strife is not himself but his entourages. They don't raise their heads; instead of being handed food directly from the tourist, they, trusting the gravity to lead all the food to the ground, are focusing on looking for food on the ground.
The biologist Richard Dawkins in his Selfish Gene writes about Skinner box experiment in which there are two types of individuals: masters and slaves(*2).
In order to be freed from the slavery, the tabby has to change the tactics, but he may not find the way. Then comes a fortuitous help.
14:38:31 From the left of the tourist, a herculean ginger joins to help the tabby to raise the pressure.
The herculean attack was so pawsome a masterstroke that the tourist scattered most of the food she had possessed.
14:38:41 The tabby is freed from the task to put pressure on the tourist and goes down to the ground to look for the food she has dropped. The herculean ginger also stops putting pressure, but he does not eat, just watching others eating. At his right hand a tricolor tripod from the back rushes into the ruck.
Considering that the herculean ginger has a muscular body, he might have so far successfully obtained food from tourists in such an aggressive manner, but what he is doing today seems not for his own benefit but absolutely altruistic to other cats.
The herculean altruism, however, is not enough to feed all the cats in the theater. The harvest was reaped exclusively by the forwards; the midfielders and the backs couldn't join the meal. The meal was almost over. The backs needed to make a last ditch effort.
14:38:44 The tripod, together with the tetrapods, stays put to eat the food left on the ground, while the biped, having given all food she has owned, stands up to leave the theater.
What is noticeable is that, while several cats are struggling fiercely for food, others in the fringe of the troops somehow seem indifferent to the food. They are lying on the ground. They seem not hungry.
So, it is still uncertain why so many cats are well-fed. Don't they suffer from food shortage?
Occasionally they face difficulties in collecting food, but thanks to support by cat-lovers across Japan they can avoid starvation.
In February 2016 a crisis came when the cats on Aoshima was short of cat-food. A cat carer sent an SOS twitter. The response was remarkable; just in three days more than 40 packages of food were sent to the island by cat lovers in Japan. The storage area on the island was full of food. In five days the carer had to tweet to stop further support (*3).
Even though the donations by tourists and cat lovers are to some extent contributing the cats to survive, those who care the cats are first and foremost the islanders.
In 2018 the number of the islander is just 13, and they, getting old, faced difficulties in continuing to feed a hundred of cats. They are eventually beginning to control the number of cats (*4).
The boat was coming. It was time for us to leave the island.
We, cat island explorers in 2017, were really privileged, having been welcomed by a hundred of friendly moggies; future explorers may not have such a fantastic experience.
The cats were on the jetty to give us final glance.
We are pleased with the cats who, on the day of Aoshima, lived up to all our expectations of their friendliness and boldness. Our memory of the glory of the feline empire shall never die. In less than eight hours, an army of one hundred cats, commanded by nobody, jumped on our laps, foraged in our backpacks, and forced us to scatter food to them.
Aoshima Island 2017 was still ruled by cats.
If you were one of the members of the expedition, all you will have to say is ≪I was on the cat island≫, people may reply, ≪There goes the first servant of the cats≫.
(*1) John Bradshaw, Cat Sense,2013
(*2) Richard Dawkins, The Selfish Gene. 40th Anniversary Edition, 2016
(*3) Japan’s Cat Island Tweets Out S.O.S. For More Cat Food, Receives Heartwarming Response, 2016
(*4) Oozu city announced on February, 2018, that it will practice TNR on all the cats on the Aoshima Island. ( 愛媛新聞「ネコが多い「青島」全匹に不妊・去勢手術」February 21, 2018)
We can't help wondering how so many cats survive on this island on which live so few people to feed them. What do the cats feed on?
On the island live some bird species; one of them is a heron.
11:48:36 A ginger goes down towards a pier at the end of which is a heron.
11:50:32 Gingerly stalks, he arrives at around four meters from the prey.
11:51:28 The ginger rushes to the prey but fails to catch it.
11:51:58 The ginger wanders about the place where the heron has been.
What is noticeable is that, even on Aoshima island where some cats form groups like lions do, the cats are basically solitary hunters. While the ginger went hunting, other cats, unlike lions, didn't join him, just watching him failing, or even didn't watch him. Most of them seemed indifferent to other cats' hunting. They seem to have no idea of becoming pack hunters.
It is uncertain whether cats' hunting success rate would improve if they become pack hunters, but, anyway, it is almost certain that natural preys on this small island are so scarce that it would be difficult for a hundred of cats to subsist only on natural preys.
So, the cats must have some other ways to get food.
One of the ways to get food is to forage food from tourists. A tourist resting on a bench is an easy target. A mackerel tabby knows well that the tourist, unlike a heron, does not flee even the cat approaches straight to the target. The cat's target, however, is not the tourist himself but his backpack in which is possibly some food.
A mackerel tabby foraging in a tourist's bag
This way, however, as well, is not promising, for not all tourists have cat food.
The chances to get food are more probable in afternoon when the boat is coming to pick up tourists who still have plentiful cat food that is scheduled to be given to the cats on the island.
14:33:09 Dozens of cats come from nowhere to a potential food feeder.
Why can the cats find possible feeder so immediately? The zoologist John Bradshaw writes in his Cat Sense (*1):
We can plainly see the cat's origins as a predator of small rodents in its remarkable hearing abilities - remarkable both in the range of sounds it can hear and in pinpointing the source of the sound.Here on the Aoshima island, we can plainly see the cats having evolved to get food from tourists with their remarkable hearing abilities, with that they pinpoint the rustling of a plastic bag in which is cat food to be scattered.
14:34:50 Dozens of cats come to tourists near the port to begin pack begging.
There are notices alerting tourists that feeding cats are allowed only in a designated place near the community center and not allowed near the port. But since they are written in Japanese, foreign tourists and domestic cats who do not read Japanese have an extravagant party near the port.
14:38:24 The cats begin to put pressure on the tourist. The advance guard is a brown tabby who is brave and bold enough to press the lap of the tourist who is forced to drop food.
Chaotic meal has begun. The advance guard is a brown tabby, who is brave enough to pounce on the tourist. When he pressed the tourist's lap, she dropped food on the ground. Some zoologists may point out its resemblance with an experiment of Skinner box, in which a pig presses a lever on a wall and then find food dropped from a dispenser, learning how to get food.
14:38:27 Despite the tabby's struggle, the tourist does not drop much food. The tabby puts pressure more violently, while his entourages eat food dropped on the ground.
We see that beneficiaries of the tabby's strife is not himself but his entourages. They don't raise their heads; instead of being handed food directly from the tourist, they, trusting the gravity to lead all the food to the ground, are focusing on looking for food on the ground.
The biologist Richard Dawkins in his Selfish Gene writes about Skinner box experiment in which there are two types of individuals: masters and slaves(*2).
Pairs of pigs did indeed settle down into a stable "master/slave" pattern of this kind, one working and running, the other doing most of the eating.The entourages, doing most of the eating, therefore, are masters while the tabby, working and pressing the tourist, is a slave.
In order to be freed from the slavery, the tabby has to change the tactics, but he may not find the way. Then comes a fortuitous help.
14:38:31 From the left of the tourist, a herculean ginger joins to help the tabby to raise the pressure.
The herculean attack was so pawsome a masterstroke that the tourist scattered most of the food she had possessed.
14:38:41 The tabby is freed from the task to put pressure on the tourist and goes down to the ground to look for the food she has dropped. The herculean ginger also stops putting pressure, but he does not eat, just watching others eating. At his right hand a tricolor tripod from the back rushes into the ruck.
Considering that the herculean ginger has a muscular body, he might have so far successfully obtained food from tourists in such an aggressive manner, but what he is doing today seems not for his own benefit but absolutely altruistic to other cats.
The herculean altruism, however, is not enough to feed all the cats in the theater. The harvest was reaped exclusively by the forwards; the midfielders and the backs couldn't join the meal. The meal was almost over. The backs needed to make a last ditch effort.
14:38:44 The tripod, together with the tetrapods, stays put to eat the food left on the ground, while the biped, having given all food she has owned, stands up to leave the theater.
What is noticeable is that, while several cats are struggling fiercely for food, others in the fringe of the troops somehow seem indifferent to the food. They are lying on the ground. They seem not hungry.
So, it is still uncertain why so many cats are well-fed. Don't they suffer from food shortage?
Occasionally they face difficulties in collecting food, but thanks to support by cat-lovers across Japan they can avoid starvation.
In February 2016 a crisis came when the cats on Aoshima was short of cat-food. A cat carer sent an SOS twitter. The response was remarkable; just in three days more than 40 packages of food were sent to the island by cat lovers in Japan. The storage area on the island was full of food. In five days the carer had to tweet to stop further support (*3).
Even though the donations by tourists and cat lovers are to some extent contributing the cats to survive, those who care the cats are first and foremost the islanders.
In 2018 the number of the islander is just 13, and they, getting old, faced difficulties in continuing to feed a hundred of cats. They are eventually beginning to control the number of cats (*4).
The boat was coming. It was time for us to leave the island.
We, cat island explorers in 2017, were really privileged, having been welcomed by a hundred of friendly moggies; future explorers may not have such a fantastic experience.
The cats were on the jetty to give us final glance.
We are pleased with the cats who, on the day of Aoshima, lived up to all our expectations of their friendliness and boldness. Our memory of the glory of the feline empire shall never die. In less than eight hours, an army of one hundred cats, commanded by nobody, jumped on our laps, foraged in our backpacks, and forced us to scatter food to them.
Aoshima Island 2017 was still ruled by cats.
If you were one of the members of the expedition, all you will have to say is ≪I was on the cat island≫, people may reply, ≪There goes the first servant of the cats≫.
(*1) John Bradshaw, Cat Sense,2013
(*2) Richard Dawkins, The Selfish Gene. 40th Anniversary Edition, 2016
(*3) Japan’s Cat Island Tweets Out S.O.S. For More Cat Food, Receives Heartwarming Response, 2016
(*4) Oozu city announced on February, 2018, that it will practice TNR on all the cats on the Aoshima Island. ( 愛媛新聞「ネコが多い「青島」全匹に不妊・去勢手術」February 21, 2018)
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