On this Japanese island, authorities are eradicating mongooses

Amami Oshima is one of the many subtropical islands in the Japanese archipelago. A small paradise listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in the late 1970s, but which had to deal with a cumbersome animal: the habu, a viper whose bite can be fatal to humans. To hunt them, the authorities imported around thirty mongooses. In vain… The island’s authorities announced that they had exterminated these furry predators, which preferred to feed on endangered local rabbits rather than eliminate venomous snakes.

The mongooses soon showed their inability to adapt to the reptiles’ agenda, according to a local official. “It is said that mongooses, active during the day, rarely came into contact with the nocturnal habu snakes.”he explained to AFP.

And to survive, they turned to the island’s rabbits, listed as endangered on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List.

25 years to get rid of mongooses

By 2000, the mongoose population had exploded to about 10,000, and Japanese authorities launched an eradication program. Nearly 25 years later, almost 50 years after the initiative began, the government announced Tuesday that the island was free of mongooses.

“(This is) truly good news for our department and for the conservation of the precious Amami ecosystem, a world natural heritage site”local governor Koichi Shiota said in a statement.

More than 37,000 alien species worldwide are living far from their original habitat, costing more than $400 billion in damage and lost revenue each year, a UN panel of experts estimated in 2023.

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