Western technology and ideas weren't the only things Commodore Matthew Perry brought when he and his "black ships" ended Japan's policy of self-imposed seclusion in 1853. He also brought goats -- at least that's one explanation for their conspicuous presence on the Ogasawara island chain, roughly 900 km south of Tokyo.
According to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, many of the more than 1,000 goats have overpopulated four uninhabited Ogasawara islets and are damaging their ecosystems by devouring vegetation and exposing the red soil, which then flows into the ocean, killing the surrounding coral.
The isles are referred to as the "Galapagos Islands of the East" because "there are lots of plants that are unique to these islands," said Masaru Yumoto of Tokyo's Park and Open Space Division in the Construction Bureau. To halt the damage, the metropolitan government July 16 enacted the first stage of a program designed to capture and completely eradicate the goats over a period of years, Yumoto said.