Wildcat Tests Japan's Environmental Will

[jpak]

http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/tech/2006/oct/28/102804684.html

IRIOMOTE NATIONAL PARK, Japan (AP) - The steamy, hazy jungle thrums with trilling insects, singing frogs and the steady gurgle of rushing water as we cut through thickets of head-high ferns.

Prowling out there somewhere in the emerald underbrush is the big prize of our safari - one of the planet's rarest wildcats.

A cat so rare, it was discovered only in 1965. So threatened, only about 100 exist. So singular, it lives only on this 110-square-mile Pacific island. Yet the elusive Iriomote cat is more than just an endangered species.

Heroic efforts to save it from extinction symbolize 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 industrialization, it proves just how tough reversing the damage can be.

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