Dogu4- Yes, the island is indeed impressive. I have been there once before, not for any real research but to just snoop around and see the habitat for myself since I am very interested in the known Iriomote cat and other wildlife on the island. I have a fascination in all island ecosystems (as you may have surmised by now), and this is my main scientific interest.

When I went to Iriomote, I was surprised at just how remote some of the inland areas are. I knew it was remote, but had no idea of just how pristine these virgin subtropical forests were. There are places where you literally cannot pass, the forest is so thick. There is animal life everywhere, the jungles are absolutely thrumming with it. I also saw some of the mangrove swamps there, which support a very interesting ecosystem of their own. When you venture out in the wilds of Iriomote, it is very easy to imagine that you have stumbled into some sort of prehistoric lost world, and the experience was amazing.

Alas, I did not see an Iriomote cat, however I can certainly see why I wouldn’t.

DWA- Indeed the known Iriomote cat is very rarely glimpsed. As I mentioned in the article I wrote, some have lived their whole lives on the island without seeing one. There are actually islanders who are skeptical of its very existence, saying it must just be some feral house cats if anything (even though the species is documented by science).

Current scientific interest in the island lies mainly in preserving the species that are already known there. For instance, there have been attempts to bypass the problems that the main road is causing with regards to cars hitting the native cats. This is actually one of the big killers of this species, yet so far there has been no foolproof method to stop these needless deaths. There is also a huge national park on the island with one of its aims being to preserve the cat, yet the problem is that the national park lies mostly in the mountainous interior of the island, yet the Iriomote cats prefer lower coastal areas. So what happens is that the cats are mostly lurking outside of the park’s boundaries, and coming in contact with the coastal road.

As far as I’m aware, there is not much of a push by biologists at this time to study the existence of new species on the island. I suppose it could have to do with the fact that the island is considered small enough that there are perhaps no big discoveries left to be made there, even though the Iriomote cat wasn’t documented until 1967. I personally would love to give it a shot, but the island really is remote and it is not feasible for many biologists to conduct a long term study without living there, and without some fairly good funding.

I’m pretty sure that any new species such as the possible Yamapikarya that is found on the island will be a byproduct of studies on known species. For example, you may get a conservation biologist or forestry worker that comes across one of these animals or stumbles accidentally onto some physical evidence. There are actually a surprisingly large amount of new species that are discovered in just this sort of way.

One problem I see epidemic in cryptozooloical circles is: you all don’t take YOURSELVES seriously enough!

Much of the proponent excusifying for why cryptids haven’t been confirmed yet seems to include, at its very core, either the proponents’ own incredulity or their lack of understanding of perfectly plausible reasons why we don’t have confirmation yet. Including the most obvious: science hasn’t confirmed because it simply has ignored the evidence.

Iriomote sounds to me like a place that almost certainly has a species or two, of some size, that science hasn’t confirmed yet. And a cat of the sort we’re talking about here, in a place like this, is just the kind of animal scientists could miss, easily.

We presume, way too easily, that scientists of all kinds have been everywhere. If Iriomote hasn’t been seriously examined by a scientist specializing in big cats, well, it hasn’t been seriously examined for big cats.

That simple.

Something could be said about Cropper’s comment that bears saying, however; and not as to the animal’s unlikelihood but rather its plausibility.

If you aren’t finding quite a bit in a rapid Google search one conclusion that could fairly be drawn is: science ain’t interested. What interests me about this cat is a significant way in which it compares to That Cryptid.

Which is: the range seems implausible – in this case, a small island in a small archipelago. But the eyewitnesses seem like reliable ones, who spend a lot of time in the backcountry, and would know if they were seeing something out of the ordinary. And they are describing something that varies quite significantly from acknowledged fauna on the island. You note all the people who live on Iriomote and don’t know anything about the cat that does live there. Many of them might have seen one and thought: house cat? Now I don’t know how many, if any, of those are on Iriomote (and would be concerned for the I-cat if there were any).

One thing I’d be interested in is: are indigenous fauna known to be there sufficient to provide good hunting for a cat this size? (I’m presuming the boar are indigenous; and given what we’re finding out all the time about predators, I’d hesitate to say a Y-cat couldn’t take one.)

But if science isn’t interested, well, the cetacean equivalent of the flying squirrel could be gliding around through those mangroves, and nobody who hadn’t seen one would know.

Just like That Cryptid.

I hope things are good with us on this front.

MaartenSFS- I’ve actually been to Iriomote island once. I went there in order to see the terrain of the known Iriomote wildcat and hopefully get a glimpse of one. Alas, I didn’t see one, but it is a breathtakingly beautiful place, so I didn’t go home disappointed. I actually do occasional research on the effects of invasive species on endemic wildlife and ecosystems, so I get out into Japan’s wild areas a fair bit. However, this research mostly involves known animals.

Any author in this field shouldn’t expect others to accept what they claim without verification. As I said that’s not an attack, its just that if you make a claim its expected that you are able to back it up with documentation. If I published an article on a previously unknown cryptid from my part of the world, I would expect someone to ask me the same questions. This happens in science all the time.

There have been instances in this field where people have claimed that a cryptid exists in order to later cry “hoax” and show the gullibility of people interested in cryptozoology. Some of these tales got relatively wide circulation.

Everyone should wear their skepticals at all times!

http://ryukyushimpo.jp/news/storyid-30074-storytopic-5.html

This article, plus other similar (some offline) sources on the same sighting is where I got information on that particular sighting for instance. When possible, I will compare information from several sources on the same sighting, and use this information to put together my English version. You may not be able to read this article, but there is an illustration to give you an idea of what it is about. If you decide you want to doubt my translation skills as well as my reporting integrity on this blog, I’m sure any Japanese person will tell you that my translation of that sighting is accurate.

This stuff on the Yamapikarya, which you would have to type in Japanese as ヤマピカリャー　, or on some sites　ヤマピカリヤ, in order to get a good result for any online search, IS available online. As you can see, since this article, and others like it, are in Japanese newspapers or other sources, in Japanese, you may not get few if any good hits with an English Google search. This is not to mention that not all such sources are online to begin with. Like I said, Google is not the answer to everyone’s research needs.

This is an example I have provided in order to show you and others here that I am not fabricating these things, and I do not appreciate the insinuations that I am.

Thank you.

As to the large cat. Sounds very believable, in addition to cat it could be in the mongoose family or what was the name of that catlike cryptid that was posted here a while back that was caught on trail cam? A type of civit?