"Orchids listed as endangered species in Tokyo's Inokashira Park have been disappearing in large numbers recently and the culprit... is rabbits.
The hungry rabbits are believed to be former pets that now live in the park as feral animals. Rabbits have remarkably high reproductive abilities, and the NGO Orchid Network has asked the Tokyo metropolitan government to capture the multiplying troublemakers. However, one official said: "The rabbits have become really popular among park visitors. They haven't done any harm to people, so we can't do anything." The network was established in 1997 by the late Prof. Ken Inoue of Shinshu University, who was the chairman of one of the committees on endangered plant species at the Japanese Society for Plant Systematics. The committee was in charge of revising parts of the government's red data book, which covers information on endangered animals and plants. Currently, the network has about 40 members who conduct surveys on wild orchids across the country. Since 1999, the network has been observing orchids in Inokashira Park, which straddles the border of Mitaka and Musashino cities. Among the 10 kinds of wild orchid in the park, the network has been monitoring two kinds designated in the red data book as EN--endangered--which is second in the book's threat level to CR--critically endangered. The network also has been watching one kind that falls into another classification, VU--vulnerable--which is below CR and EN, but still in danger of extinction. According to the network, there are 700 orchid rootstocks of the three kinds in the park, but the organization's survey in August found their number had been reduced by half. For example, 105 rootstocks of the kinran orchid [Cephalanthera falcata], designated as VU, were confirmed last year, but only 50 were verified this year. Many of the destroyed orchids appeared to have been eaten, with only the stems remaining. When a member of the network examined a section of a stem, a tooth mark resembling a rabbit's was spotted. Also, a rabbit was spotted inside a bug protection net placed over the orchids, according to the network. The network's Vice President Shunji Mitsuhashi said, "It must be the rabbits, which love soft leaves, because other plants with harder leaves weren't damaged so badly." According to the Tokyo metropolitan government's Seibu District Park Office, several rabbits have been spotted since the beginning of this year. They have become quite popular, and more and more visitors feed or take pictures of them. As there are no wild rabbits in the area, an official of the office said, "They probably are pets that became feral after being deserted." ... the network has requested the metropolitan government to conduct investigations on the rabbits and catch them. However, the office has so far declined the request, saying, "We need time to discuss it, as we have never caught or killed animals that haven't harmed people." "It'd be too late to deal with the problem if such precious plants became extinct," said Edogawa University Prof. Masahito Yoshida. "Preserving the ecosystem is one of the purposes of having city parks, and it's wrong not to do anything. Of course whoever dumped the rabbits here is to blame, but the metropolitan government has to do something about it as quickly as possible." article URL : http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/20060923TDY03006.htm ********* Regards, VB _______________________________________________ the OrchidGuide Digest (OGD) [email protected] http://orchidguide.com/mailman/listinfo/orchids_orchidguide.com
