This project will support our accident prevention programs in Okinawa, Japan. The Iriomote cat is an endangered species, with only about 100 endemic cats, living only on Iriomote Island. Recently in 2021, the Island was registered as a World Natural Heritage Site, so the number of tourists are increasing. As the traffic volume increases, there are concerns that this will increase traffic accidents involving wild cats, so we conduct night patrols and environmental awareness programs.
Our NPO has a local chapter leader, Yusuke Takayama, who is managing the daily activities on Iriomote Island to protect the cats from their biggest threat, car collision accidents. Since the island was registered as a World Natural Heritage Site in 2021, Iriomote Island will continue seeing increased tourism and many people rent cars to drive around the island in search of wildlife. We need to prevent roadkill cats. With such a small population of cats, every single one individual counts!
The Night Patrol conducts patrols in the evenings, posts roadside signs based on recent sightings, & monitors problem areas. There is one main road which intersects the cat's habitat, so as we patrol, we remove other roadkill which might attract the cats to the road. We closely monitor & record our observations of speeding cars. Due to the tropical climate, we frequently need to clear the roadside weeds in order to increase the visibility for drivers, in case cats are crossing the roads.
With more than 20 years of experience protecting the long-term survival of the wild cats, we plan to keep expanding upon our efforts. Our activities on the island included road construction input, environmental education teacher-training courses for "Living with the Iriomote Cats" which all the island's school kids attend, as well as wildlife camera montoring for the local schools. Our activities really engage residents who appreciate the endemic wildlife & we want to secure their future.
This project has provided additional documentation in a PDF file (projdoc.pdf).
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