2023-08-08 17:09:24
A group of cats asking for food from one of the tourists (Archyde.com)
Aoshima is a small rural island in the Ehime prefecture of southern Japan that is quite the tourist attraction for cat lovers. In any part of this space of just over a square kilometer you can see a feline hanging out or walking, since the population of these animals is much greater than that of people.
This island earned the nickname “Cat Heaven Island” (Island of the sky of cats), currently 120 cats live in the area, that is, for every person who lives in the place there are three cats. To get to this small island you have to take a 30-minute ferry.
In recent years, thousands of cat fans have traveled to this place to see felines that live in complete freedom and generally welcome all visitors with purrs.
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The cats that currently reside are descendants of the first ones brought by a fisherman in the middle of the last century (Getty Images)
According to information from The Atlantic portal, visitors encounter these animals as soon as they get off the ship in the island’s port. The main economic activity was fishing, however, given the reduction in marine animal populations, many people emigrated to Japanese cities to work.
While the number of inhabitants on the island decreased, the number of cats increased, which is why it is common to see these animals resting inside abandoned houses. Given the uncontrolled growth of the cats, the authorities decided to implement a castration plan to reduce the local population.
The cats did not arrive on the island by themselves, it was thanks to a fisherman in the middle of the last century who decided to take a few specimens to treat a plague of mice, however, in an act of irresponsibility the cats were left in captivity and left from that moment its population grew very fast.
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A woman feeding the cats that inhabit the island (Archyde.com)
The cat empire is noted in every space on the island, since human activities are scarce, there are no restaurants or shops, for this reason travel agencies ask tourists to bring their own food and respect the local population.
According to information from the Europa Press agency, the village nurse is in charge of regularly feeding these animals, dozens of cats sit outside the medical center to receive some food.
The feline population grew out of control due to the absence of natural predators, so they indirectly became the rulers of this space. The cats are not very fussy and regularly survive on food brought by visitors such as rice balls, energy bars or potatoes.
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Although the number of visitors that the island receives on weekends is not very high, it is enough for some locals to say they are uncomfortable with tourist activities. A boat captain from the island told the local Yomiuri newspaper that they had never had that many people in the area before.
Most of the cats are in large groups hanging around the area (Archyde.com)
“We have never had tourists come every weekend. I don’t get it, honestly. That is to say, there is nothing else to do here than to see many cats, ”she commented on how unattractive she sees the place.
The Japanese government considered the town to be of the genkai shuraku, or “limit towns” type. This means that the average life of the people who inhabit the place is over 65 years, which represents a sociological and political problem, since what they want to avoid is that the rural world becomes depopulated scenic landscapes.
A cat with a fish in its snout on Aoshima Island (Getty Images)
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