An island in Japan has become an Instagram destination thanks to its only residents: a huge herd of somewhere around 500 wild rabbits. But Okunoshima Island, around 60km east of Hiroshima city, has a problem. Wild boars have developed a taste for the furry population.
Wild boars preying on rabbits
Rabbit Island, as it's more commonly called, has long drawn tourists eager to feed the animals, up close and personal. But Okunoshima – uninhabited except for staff working at the solitary hotel and its guests – faces an uncertain future, and so do its fabled four-legged inhabitants.
A new study suggests human handouts may be reshaping the island's fragile ecosystem and putting the beloved bunnies in danger. The research, published on July 29 in the Journal of Ecotourism, found that the island's native wild boars have started eating leftover rabbit feed, scavenging rabbit carcasses and, in some cases, even hunting live rabbits.
'When we first heard that a wild boar had preyed on a live rabbit, we were surprised,' Shingo Kaneko, a study co-author and Fukushima University ecologist, said in a statement. 'Wild boars are known to scavenge animal carcasses, but they are not generally regarded as animals that actively hunt live prey.'
Rabbits' non-native origins
Much loved as they are, part of the problem is that the rabbits aren't native to Okunoshima. They're the domestic European sort, introduced to the island following World War II and its use as a testing ground for chemical weapons. From 1929 until August 1945, the island hosted poisonous gas research and production facilities run by the Japanese imperial army. The operation was so secret that Okunoshima was not included in maps of Japan from that time.
Today, ruins of old military bases and chemical factories can be found all across the island. Back in the day, about 200 of them were used in experiments to test the efficacy of gas that the Japanese military used during the Sino-Japanese war and, later, to arm balloon bombs targeting the US. In the 70s, a nearby primary school released rabbits back onto the abandoned island, and the rest, as they say, is history.
Tourism impact and broader concerns
In 2024, nearly 200,000 people visited Okunoshima, drawn mainly by the promise of experiencing a rabbit paradise. Now, there are so many that their numbers exceed what the natural ecosystem would otherwise support. According to researchers, 'food left by tourists may be attracting wild boars into the areas heavily populated by rabbits', leading to more frequent encounters between the two species.
But the study's authors are clear that the new predators are not the main concern. Instead, they want to highlight how unchecked wildlife tourism can disrupt delicate environments. The solution, Shingo Kaneko and his team say, is stricter feeding regulations, rabbit monitoring and vegetation analysis. They also believe a public awareness campaign could educate tourists and lead to greater safeguards.
The problem extends far beyond Rabbit Island. In Maya Bay and the Phi Phi Islands in Thailand, an influx of more than a million visitors each year has caused tour boats to crush coral reefs. Black tipped sharks were driven from the idyll that was made famous as the set of Leonardo Di Caprio's 2000 thriller 'The Beach', until a tourism ban and the pandemic saw visitors vanish between 2018 and 2022. It's a similar story across the Galapagos, the Great Barrier Reef, and sub-Saharan Africa.
Wildlife tourism's darker side
Then there's wildlife tourism in its ugliest form. According to animal rights groups such as PETA and the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), some of the most harmful experiences include riding or bathing elephants, swimming with dolphins, taking selfies with tigers, walking with lions, and posing for photos with primates or birds. Research from a 2016 World Animal Protection report found that three out of four wildlife tourist attractions involve some form of animal abuse or conservation concerns, and up to 550,000 wild animals are suffering in venues around the world.
The practice puts humans at risk, too. Most recently, in January 2025, a Spanish tourist was killed by an elephant attack during a bathing experience at the Koh Yao Elephant Care Centre in southern Thailand. The elephant handler was charged with negligence causing death. Months later, in June 2025, an Indian tourist was mauled by a tiger at Tiger Kingdom in Phuket, Thailand, while attempting to take a selfie inside the animal's enclosure.
