Cat's Island in Japan - meowing paradise with its problems

Cats are fluffy and purring creatures, literally conquering almost seemingly harmless and with a special charm almost the whole world. Therefore, in general, and it is not surprising that there is a whole cat's island. In Japan, in the expanse of the ocean, moustached predators deserved, conquered or occupied - you can tell in different ways - quite extensive land. Strictly speaking, in the Land of the Rising Sun there is not one, but even two feline islands. We will get acquainted with them and their inhabitants closer.

Defenders of the Silkworm

The first cat's island in Japan is Tashiro. It is part of the prefecture of Miyagi and is located fourteen kilometers from the coast of the Land of the Rising Sun. Originally, cats were required to fight rodents. Tashiro was a breeding ground for silkworms, and the mice enjoyed it with pleasure. The future island of cats in Japan was saved from ruin by their new mustachioed inhabitants. After that the muffling heroes were known as animals that bring good luck.

Four-legged anglers

Soon the production of silk fabrics fell into decay. To replace him as a source of food and goods for trade came fishing. Of course, this could not but affect the cats in the most positive way. The mourning assistants enjoyed the delicacies enjoyed by the residents.

Unfortunately, over time Tashiro suffered the same fate as many of our villages: the island left all the young people. The number of residents began to decline rapidly, until it reached a modern figure of about 100 people. The vast majority of them are people of advanced age. So there was a cat's island in Japan, where there are more cats than people. According to an approximate calculation, there are four or five tetrapods per bipedal Tashiro.

Invasion

Cats have bred because of the immense love of the inhabitants. On the island, where there are two settlements, one of the central and revered places is the temple of cats, located approximately in the middle between the villages. In credit to the cat everything is put literally: good weather, abundant catch, rescue from rodents and so on. Of course, for such a large number of benefits of cats fed, nursed and cherished.

To this is added the ban on dogs operating on the island. As a result, happy and independent animals felt like masters: they occupy all vacant buildings, insistently meow at the approach of a person with delicious in their hands, meticulously inspect tourists.

From hunters to stars

Tourists - this, you can say, than meowing and already quite lazy fuzzy pay for kindness to the inhabitants. Since the cat's island in Japan, a photo of which flew over the Internet several years ago, has become famous, people come here daily to see flocks of red, striped and spotted mousetraps waiting for another portion of food or lying down in the sun.

Japanese and citizens of other countries come not only to admire and feed animals. Cats are recognized worldwide as antidepressants. If we consider this, Toshiro can be called an island of murching bliss: the fluffy healers of melancholy and melancholy are here at every step and generously share their skills. The cat's island in Japan beckons to tourists almost without the consent of local residents. Many of them have nothing against it, others say that there is too much noise from visitors.

Overfed

There are here and their problems. As is known, when a cat is fed enough, it stops hunting. If the kittens and young animals enjoy playing with pleasure, the more adults basically sleep. Hence the problem of obesity of animals: they are fed by both local and tourists. On the island, even began to give instructions in which it is forbidden to feed cats.

Aoshima

The second island of cats in Japan in many respects similar to Tashiro. It is called Aoshima, and the mewing quadrupeds are about six times larger than the people. The population of the island is 22 people. Just like on Tashiro, mostly people over 50 years old. Most of the inhabitants left the island after the Second World War.

Cats originally served here as the same mousetraps: they protected from damage fishing nets and boats. There were no predators on the island, which could contain the natural growth of the animal population, as a result, today there are about 120 individuals.

Of course, Aoshima became no less popular island among the cat-owners than Toshiro. Tourists do not mind the lack of infrastructure, they go to look at the mulling and rather hungry, in contrast to the four-legged Tashiro residents, cats. The extremely small population of the island is not able to independently provide food for all animals, and visitors apparently do not cope: the authorities of the prefecture decided to sterilize at least some animals in order to contain the growth of the population.

The cat's island in Japan (both Tashiro and Aoshima) can be interesting from different points of view. This is a magnificent example of an almost uncontrolled increase in the number of individuals in the absence of predators, and an example of the influence of the Internet on public interest, and an illustration of the relationship between humans and animals. In addition, cat islands highlight the problem of abandoned cities, and even the philosophical moment of the relationship between the old and the new, which manifests itself in relation to the inhabitants of the islands to crowds of tourists and the maturing changes.