Saving a rare feline

One of the world’s rarest wildcats tests Japan’s resolve to save the environment. HANS GREIMEL reports.
A cat so rare, it was discovered only in 1965. So threatened, only about 100 exist. So singular, it lives only on this 282 sq km Pacific island. Yet the elusive Iriomote cat is more than just an endangered species.
Heroic efforts to save it from extinction symbolise an about-turn in Japan’s long-tortured relationship with Mother Nature. Not only does the struggle underline the country’s newfound determination to redress decades of environmental devastation at the hands of unbridled industrialisation, it proves just how tough reversing the damage can be.

“The wildcat’s barely hanging on,” says our jungle guide, Maki Okamura, a scientist at the Iriomote Wildlife Conservation Centre. “Even if we lose just one, it has a huge impact,”

(Resource : http://thestar.com.my/lifestyle/story.asp?file=/2006/11/14/lifefocus/15920079&sec=lifefocus)

Kim Jin ah