Adorable Bunnies Overrun Japanese Island

Photographer Michael Yang pays a visit to Okunoshima, a small island in Japan that is overrun with bunnies, giving it the nickname “Rabbit Island”. Here he shares his experience:

“No one really knows where the bunnies came from. Some people say that the bunnies were released after World War II from the poison gas factory located on the island. Others say that school children released their bunnies on the island. In any case, they have no natural predators on the island so they have overrun it.
The island has become a tourist attraction, bringing in both Japanese and foreign visitors, such as my wife (Margaret Cheng) and myself. It isn’t the easiest place to get to, but can be reached by public transportation. From Osaka, it took us the local subway, two Shinkansen bullet trains (an express then a local one), a local train (that only runs once every hour), and a ferry to reach the island.

When you reach the island, there are hungry bunnies to greet visitors. They are attracted to the sound of plastic bags that visitors use to carry vegetables. People bring everything from lettuce to carrots and from hay to pellets.

There is a single hotel on the island, so you can stay overnight. Along with the bunnies, there is a bus waiting for each ferry that takes guests to the hotel. The bus driver is careful not to run over any bunnies or people gawking at the bunnies. On the short trip to the hotel, everyone is laughing and pointing out large groups of bunnies as we pass by.

Feeding the bunnies is the best part. However, you have to be careful not to run over any of the bunnies and, at the same time, not be overrun by the bunnies trying to get to the food in your hands. Often, while we were feeding one bunny with one hand, another bunny would sneak up and try to get the rest of the food that we were carrying in the other hand.

We were fortunate to be in Japan twice last year (in 2015) and, both times, we made sure we stopped at Bunny Island. On our second trip, it rained but we did not let that spoil the fun. We grabbed our umbrellas and fed the bunnies anyways.

Feeding baby bunnies is tough. They are shy and the larger, adult bunnies will push their way to the front to eat. We found that it was best to have one person distract the larger bunnies (with food) while the other fed the baby bunnies. Large lettuce leafs are great for feeding many bunnies at the same time.”