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Ogasawara NP, Tokyo
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Minamizaki is one of the few seabird breeding sites on an inhabited Ogasawara island. After feral-cat controls, shearwaters fledged here annually from 2009; brown boobies nested again in 2014 after a 10-year absence.
Rangers tracked a black cat slipping into Minamizaki’s seabird refuge via a sea cliff. They blocked the route with plastic sheeting nicknamed “the hanging scroll”; cameras then caught cats scouting new ways in.
On the trail to Minamizaki, the bowl-shaped red-earth hollow called Suribachi is still being reshaped by rain and typhoons. Before World War II, schoolchildren came on field trips and slid down it on palm leaves or cardboard.
Nearby, 86-metre Kofuji is Hahajima’s “local Fuji.” Its New Year climb is billed by the local tourist association as Japan’s earliest first-sunrise ascent from an inhabited place; climbers can even receive a summit certificate.
From the nearby Kofuji lookout, you can see Katsuodori-jima—literally, “Booby Island”—where brown boobies breed. The Hahajima Tourist Association says their flights can be seen there in spring and summer.
The Minamizaki trail passes leaf litter where Kogane-katamaimai lives, a land snail found only on Hahajima. A walk to the surf crosses habitat for this nationally listed rare species.
