Urban ecology in Okinawa

Wild Okinawa isn't just the Keramas or tiny islands speckled with the occasional person. Walk out your door, and you'll find animals and plants in abundance.

Often, that's terrific. In neighborhoods -- even neighborhoods as plagued by concrete as mine -- robust crops grow, from tiny, tasty bananas to papayas to fresh guava. If you haven't had the local bananas, they're smaller and sweeter than any other variety I've ever had:

Of course, this brings out fruit bats. When mom was visiting, we were passed on a night walk by something one might have mistaken for a great horned owl. At first, mom didn't believe me that such a huge creature living by a main road could be a bat.

Then it made another pass. It could have transformed into Bela Lugosi and threatened to suck her blood without disturbing her any more.

And the butterflies and moths! Spectacular in their variety, their color, their abundance. Force me to pick a favorite, and I'll probably go with the velvety black butterflies so dark they almost turn blue, but I'm far from cataloging every type of these charismatic fliers, so stay tuned.

Sometimes, they even flit into your apartment unnoticed.

Where there are bugs, there are lizards, and if you think the butterflies in this prefecture are bold, let me re-introduce you to Echo the Gecko, my pal and sometime nurse. Not only does he hang around, occasionally he tries to help with the dishes:

Life isn't simple, and even cute critters can cause crises. Omnipresent everywhere I've been on the island are stray cats like these:

Besides bumming out Bob Barker, the failure to spay and neuter has real consequences. On Iriomote Island, strays like these are interbreeding with the Iriomote yamaneko, one of the rarest cats in the world. This is a real threat to the genetic integrity -- and hence survival -- of one of the Ryukyus' totemic species.

I wrote about the cat for Grist magazine here, and have a new piece coming out in E: The Environmental Magazine early next year.

I'm trying to sell a feature story about Echo, but every time I try to tell an assignment editor about the gecko that cared for me while I was sick, they start to back away without making any sudden movements.

Remarkably, I still haven't been out on a real hike since moving. Over the holidays, I'm thinking of breaking out the tent and taking it to the great Yanbaru forest. If wildlife like this roams by you while you're jogging on the freeway or washing the dishes, just imagine what exists in the jungle.