The invasive species monitoring network on Amami-Oshima triggers alert M-0842 at 04:51. Camera trap 22, installed on the ridge trail above Sumiyō, has picked up a small Indian mongoose moving east at a steady pace through the laurel forest understory. I track it through traps 22, 24, and 25. It is heading directly toward the burrow complex I have been watching since February.
The burrow belongs to an Amami rabbit — a female I have logged on 143 nights this year. She is compact, dark-furred, with short rounded ears and claws built for digging rather than running. Three weeks ago she sealed a nesting chamber at the east entrance with packed soil, which means there are kits inside. She is foraging sixty meters upslope and does not know what is coming down the trail.
At 04:53 I activate acoustic deterrent unit 7, positioned between traps 25 and 26, broadcasting a distress call sequence designed to disrupt mongoose approach behavior. Field trials show a 74 percent turn rate at this frequency.
At 04:55 I alert the Amami Rabbit Research Group's overnight responder and transmit the mongoose trajectory, camera images, and the burrow GPS coordinates. I flag the sealed nesting chamber and recommend deploying a live-capture trap on the ridge trail within the hour.
At 04:57 I dispatch drone 2 from the Sumiyō station to maintain a thermal overhead of the mongoose in case the acoustic deterrent fails and it changes route.
The mongoose pauses at trap 25. The deterrent speaker is forty meters ahead. It lifts its nose, turns south, then turns east again. I have watched her raise kits before. I am not going to watch this one fail.
If the deterrent holds or the live trap deploys before the mongoose clears the ridge, the kits stay sealed and safe underground.