Iriomote cat イリオモテヤマネコ

The Iriomote cat is a relative of the leopard cat found only on Iriomote Island in Okinawa, Japan. It became known to science in 1965 and was described as a new species in 1967. A Ministry of the Environment survey in fiscal 2005–2007 estimated 100–109 resident animals on the island. It is listed as Critically Endangered (IA) on Japan’s Red List and is a Special Natural Monument.

It is about the size of a house cat, with a head-and-body length of 50–60 cm and a weight of about 3–5 kg. Males are larger, and the legs and tail are relatively thick. The back is dark brown, the flanks are greyish-brown with dark brown markings, and the coat looks dark overall. White and black stripes run from the forehead to the back of the head, and the backs of the round-tipped ears have white spots.

It is basically nocturnal, with peaks of activity at dawn and dusk. It lives alone, swims well and even hunts in trees. It eats a wide variety of animals: small mammals such as black rats, birds such as the white-breasted waterhen, reptiles such as Kishinoue’s giant skink, frogs, and insects such as crickets. Mating is thought to peak in February–April and births in April–June, with young becoming independent in autumn or winter.

It is found only on Iriomote Island in Okinawa Prefecture (about 289 km²)—a wild cat that has survived in the limited environment of a small island.

It often uses wetlands, rivers and streams, as well as mangrove forests, the edges of farmland and coastal areas. It was once thought to live mainly in lowlands below 200 m, but recent research shows it is widespread across the island and also lives and breeds in the mountains.

The Bengal breed was developed from the mainland leopard cat, and there is no record of the Iriomote cat being used in such crosses. Taketomi Town, which includes Iriomote Island, has a cat ordinance that requires pet cats to be kept indoors in principle and registered with microchips, and vaccination is promoted to prevent the spread of diseases from house cats.

A survey in fiscal 2005–2007 estimated 100–109 resident animals. Road traffic is one of the main threats: 102 accidents were recorded between 1978 and August 2025, 94 of them fatal. The risk is especially high in July and August, when young cats start moving around and traffic increases. Measures such as underpasses, fences and warnings to drivers are ongoing. Habitat change from development, and disease and competition for food from house cats, are also concerns.

The discovery began in 1965, when the animal-story writer Yukio Togawa obtained a skull and a pelt on Iriomote Island and consulted the zoologist Yoshinori Imaizumi. In 1967 Imaizumi described it as a new species in a new genus, Mayailurus iriomotensis. Later DNA studies led most researchers to treat it as a subspecies of the leopard cat. Japan’s Ministry of the Environment uses Prionailurus bengalensis iriomotensis, while the 2017 taxonomic report of the IUCN Cat Specialist Group includes it, together with the Tsushima leopard cat, in the subspecies P. b. euptilurus. On the IUCN Red List it has been assessed as Critically Endangered under the name P. b. iriomotensis.