Rabbits, Cats, Crabs and Dragons!!

My inspiration for my blog this week is my office mascot known as Flash! Flash is a four year old male Mini Lop rabbit who loves nothing better than trying to trip me up when I come to work in the morning.  He lives in a hutch in the corner of my office and has been toilet trained to use a litter tray since he was a baby bunny.

I remember seeing an article about an island that was overrun by rabbits so I thought I would have a look at what else I could find so here are four islands with serious animal problems which you can visit.

Rabbit Island

The small island of Ōkunoshima can be found in the Inland Sea of Japan and it is famous for two things: poison gas and rabbits. The island originally housed a facility that made mustard gas which was tested on the rabbits. When the facility was shut down the rabbits were set loose and without any predators on the island their numbers have exploded.

Komodo

Komodo is one of 17,508 islands that compose the Republic of Indonesia. It is the habitat of the Komodo dragon which is the largest lizard on the planet. The dragons have septic saliva which is made up of over 50 different bacteria plus venom and an anticoagulant.

Tashirojima

This is a small island in Japan off the Oshika Peninsula with a very small population of only 100 inhabitants. The island has been classified as a “terminal village” due to the fact that 50% of the population are over 65! It has become known as “Cat Island” due to the large stray cat population that thrives as a result of the local belief that feeding cats will bring wealth and good fortune. The cat population is now larger than the human population on the island. Maybe they should hope for youth as well!

Christmas Island

Apparently 43.7 million red crab live on Christmas Island which is located in the Indian Ocean. Every year during the breeding season in October and November the crabs make their way from the breeding grounds to the ocean. Not sure I would like to see this many crabs in one place!

I did find a n island overrun with spiders and snakes but could not bring myself to look at the images! Can you think of anywhere else?