History of domestic cats on Pitcairn Island

Historical record of cats on Pitcairn Island

Figure 1 shows a timeline of Pitcairn Island, from 1750 to the present. Most of the events on this chart are elaborated in the text following.

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Figure 1.

Timeline of human and cat events on Pitcairn Island.

Eighteenth century: Introduction of cats to Tahiti and subsequently to Pitcairn Island

Cats first arrived on the island of Tahiti in 1767 with Captain Samuel Wallis on H.M.S. Dolphin (regarded as the first European ship to reach Tahiti). Wallis wrote: ‘I gave them a Cat big with Kittens of which they were very fond – and Surprized to see her attack the Rats so Eagerly.’ ⁵ In 1774, Captain James Cook left 20 cats on Tahiti and additional cats on nearby islands. ⁶ Lt. William Bligh wrote about a visit on 25 November 1788 to the Bounty by Oberea, a Tahitian friend of Joseph Banks, who brought aboard ‘a favorite cat that she had bred from one that was given to her by Captn. Cook’. ⁷ On 31 January 1789, Bligh wrote in his log:

When I was at Otaheite with Captain Cook, there were great numbers of rats about all the houses, and so tame that they flocked round the people at their meals for the offals, which were commonly thrown to them; but at this time we scarce ever saw a rat, which must be attributed to the industry of a breed of cats left here by European ships. ⁸

In the same log entry, Bligh recorded the first reference to cats on the Bounty when he wrote:

We were constantly obliged to be at great pains to keep the ship clear of vermin on account of the plants. By the help of traps and good cats, we were freed from rats and mice.

Bligh was referring to his requirement to clear the ship of rats before bringing aboard the cargo of breadfruit plants that the Bounty had been tasked to obtain. Sir Joseph Banks had also instructed Bligh that there were to be no uncaged animals of any kind on board during the transport of the breadfruit plants in order to protect the plants from damage. ⁹ On 27 March 1789, Bligh ordered that all the ship’s cats and dogs be taken ashore prior to the loading of the breadfruit. When the Bounty departed Tahiti on 5 April with its cargo of breadfruit, no cats were aboard. ¹⁰

The mutiny occurred on 28 April 1789. Bligh and most of his loyal crew members were set adrift in a longboat. James Morrison was the boatswain’s mate on the Bounty. He claimed loyalty to Bligh, but due to lack of space in the longboat, he remained on the Bounty with the mutineers until their final stop in Tahiti. Eventually he was arrested and taken back to England where he was tried and convicted, and later pardoned. ¹¹ His journal provides invaluable details of the mutiny and includes several references to cats, an indication of their considerable significance to both the Polynesians and the ship’s crew. In Morrison’s journal, entries describing the Bounty’s stay in Tahiti and the subsequent mutiny, he wrote of the Tahitians: ‘they have also cats and rats but eat neither’, ¹² and that ‘they charge us with several other disorders with which they say they were unacquainted before they knew us, particularly with bringing fleas among them, which they say were brought by the cats’. ¹³

Immediately after the mutiny, the mutineers sought refuge on the island of Tubuai. They arrived on 24 May, stayed for a week, and then returned to Tahiti to pick up nine women, eight men, eight children and livestock, including some cats, to take back to Tubuai. ¹⁴ Morrison wrote of the Tahiti visit: ‘By the 16th we had mustered about 460 hogs (mostly breeders), 50 goats, a quantity of fowl, and a few dogs and cats.’ ¹⁵ Some of those cats were left on Tubuai, as indicated by Morrison’s 18 July 1789 entry: ‘Finding the place overrun with rats, several cats were brought on shore and let loose among them.’ ¹⁶ In describing the living conditions of the Tubuai people, Morrison wrote: ‘The rats run over them all night in droves, but as we left several cats, it is possible that in time they may reduce their numbers.’ ¹⁷

On 15 September 1789, the mutineers left Tubuai for the second and last time to return to Tahiti, ‘well stocked with hogs, goats, fowl, dogs, and cats. . .’. ¹⁸ Fifteen of the Bounty’s crew, including Morrison, disembarked in Tahiti and were eventually apprehended by British authorities. On the night of 21 September 1789, the Bounty, under the command of Fletcher Christian, departed Tahiti on the voyage that would eventually end at Pitcairn Island around 15 January 1790. ¹⁹

Nineteenth century: Protecting the cats

Nothing more was heard from the mutineers until they were discovered on Pitcairn Island by Captain Mayhew Folger of the American ship Topaz in 1808. At that time the island was populated by John Adams, last survivor of the original mutineers, and a group of women and children who were the mutineers’ partners and offspring. ²⁰ The first official documentation of cats on Pitcairn Island was logged nine years later during the visit of the American whaler Sultan under Captain Reynolds of Boston. It was the third ship to arrive since the mutineers’ hideout had been found in 1808 by Captain Folger. ²¹ The Sultan’s first officer, Mr Newell, wrote a description of Pitcairn and its inhabitants in his journal. Part of the entry for 17 October 1817 states:

The principal produce of the island is yams, tarro, bread fruit, cocoa nuts, bananas, sugar cane, and the tea root, all of which they found on landing—they also found great numbers of rats. Hogs, goats, fowls, and cats were brought in the ship. ²²

‘The ship’ is understood to be the Bounty. It is clear from the journal entry’s context that Newell was describing the resources that the mutineers discovered on the island and the livestock that arrived with them on the Bounty. The rats he mentions are Polynesian rats (Rattus exulans) that were present before the mutineers arrived and are still on Pitcairn today.

Jacques Antoine Moerenhout, who later became the U.S. and French Consul in Papeete, Tahiti, visited Pitcairn Island in January 1829 (two months prior to the death of John Adams, the last surviving mutineer) on the Volador and made detailed notes about his visit. His observations include the following paragraph, of great significance to Pitcairn cat history:

One thing which astonished me and upon which I remarked to my guides is the few birds on the island because, having covered it almost completely, I had seen only two or three—and these were sea birds. “It’s the cats,” they told me, “who have destroyed them.” It seems that upon the arrival of the English the island was covered with rats, which the cats which they had brought with them took no time in chasing, but, since they were given nothing to eat so that they would more readily chase the rats, they multiplied rapidly, becoming wild. A few years later they were so great in number that, not content with destroying the rats, they also destroyed the birds, which they surprised at night, and when these resources were lacking, they could even be seen taking away the chickens of the inhabitants. Soon then they had become even more inconvenient than the rats had ever been, and the islanders were obligated to give chase to them with guns and set traps for them, and thus destroyed almost all. If they had not done this, the cats would not have left a single chicken in all the island. ²³

In Moerenhout’s quote, ‘the arrival of the English’ refers to the mutineers’ arrival at Pitcairn Island in the Bounty.

During the late 1820s, John Adams became concerned that the tiny island, already suffering from deforestation, would soon be unable to support the growing community. In 1831, the entire Pitcairn population abandoned the island during an attempt to resettle in Tahiti. Many islanders died from illnesses there. The survivors decided to return to Pitcairn and some arrived after only three and a half months away. ²⁴ Frederick Bennett visited Pitcairn on H.M.S. Tuscan in 1834 and wrote that ‘the quadrupeds we noticed were all exotic, as goats and swine, which were brought hither by the first settlers from the Bounty, and a bull and cow, a donkey, a dog, and several cats, which the people had recently brought with them from Tahiti’. Bennett also mentioned that the Tahitian name for domestic cats was iore-pii-fare, meaning ‘the rat that climbs the house’. ²⁵ His observations suggest that cats were brought to Pitcairn from Tahiti after the failed attempt to resettle there in 1831. Does this mean that Pitcairn was without cats in 1831? We propose that the earlier cat eradication (c.1820) noted by Moerenhout, while not eliminating all cats from the island but having ‘destroyed almost all’, could have reduced the cat population to such low numbers that the rat population grew significantly by the time the islanders’ exodus to Tahiti took place. The Pitcairn Islanders might have decided to obtain additional cats in Tahiti, where they were readily available, in order to control the rats they expected to find upon their return to Pitcairn.

Cats were noted to be present on Pitcairn in December 1837. ²⁶ By the late 1830s, the islanders were making the welfare of cats a high priority, representing a dramatic change from the earlier eradication efforts described by Moerenhout. On 30 November 1838, at the request of the Pitcairn Islanders, Captain Russell Elliott of H.M.S. Fly wrote a set of laws for Pitcairn Island. The third law was described as ‘Laws for Cats’, which stated:

If any person under the age of ten years shall kill a cat, he or she shall receive corporal punishment. If any one between the ages of ten and fifteen shall kill a cat he or she shall pay a fine of twenty-five dollars; half the fine to be given to the informer, the other half to the public. All masters of families convicted of killing a cat shall be fined fifty dollars; half the fine to be given to the informer, the other half to the public. ²⁷

Fines of up to $1,200 in today’s dollars suggest that cats had become highly valued for their ability to catch rats. It is also noteworthy that the law specifically addressed the actions of young people.

Walter Brodie was stranded on Pitcairn for two weeks in 1850 and described seeing ‘cats numerous, and wild in the bush, and are encouraged to kill the rats, although they probably destroy more fowls than rats’. ²⁸ Another description of Pitcairn Island states: ‘The people are annoyed by rats, which do much damage to the sugar-canes. Hence the strictness of the Law for the Preservation of Cats.’ ²⁹ Another cat law was quoted by Rev. G. H. Nobbs:

If a cat is killed without being positively detected in killing fowls, however strong the suspicion may be, the person killing such cat is obliged, as a penalty, to destroy 300 rats, whose tails must be submitted for the inspection of the magistrate, by way of proof that the penalty has been paid. ³⁰

Pitcairn’s population had reached 155 by 1850 and was rapidly growing due to increasing births. There was a drought in 1853, leading to a feeling among the inhabitants that the island could no longer support them, and a decision was reached to relocate the community to Norfolk Island. All 194 islanders left Pitcairn on 3 May 1856, aboard the Morayshire and arrived at Norfolk Island on 8 June. ³¹ Prior to their arrival, domestic cats were present on Norfolk and were mentioned in a journal entry on 16 May 1855. ³² However, we could find no historical references suggesting that cats were taken from Pitcairn to Norfolk. None of a set of surviving journals of Pitcairn Islanders who resettled on Norfolk Island make any mention of cats being brought from Pitcairn, nor is there any mention of cats in a transcribed letter from Fredrick Howard, a Norfolk Islander, to his sister, in which he speaks of his time spent with the Pitcairn Islanders while establishing their Norfolk settlement. ³³ During the Norfolk Island resettlement, Pitcairn Island sat deserted for around two and a half years, with the exception of 15 March–23 July 23 1858, when it was occupied by Captain Knowles and six crew members of the ship Wild Wave, which had run aground at Oneo Island. ³⁴ Captain Knowles reported in his log that they found cattle, goats, chickens and one hog to sustain them, but mentioned neither rats nor cats. ³⁵ However, we know from Walter Brodie’s description that there were ‘numerous’ feral cats on the island in 1850. Additionally, a later newspaper account mentioned that the Wild Wave crew encountered cats on Pitcairn, ³⁶ although the article appeared to contradict some statements Captain Knowles made about the incident in his log. If the Pitcairn Islanders took any cats with them to Norfolk Island, those cats were likely to have been socialized pets that would have been much more easily located and transported than would have been feral cats that generally avoid people. Any cats remaining on the deserted island would have had no difficulty surviving due to the mild climate, lack of predators, abundant food in the form of rats, wild birds and abandoned chickens, and derelict structures for shelter. A deserted Pitcairn Island would have been a virtual paradise for cats. Thus, we do not believe that the temporary abandonment of Pitcairn interrupted the presence of cats on the island.

We located several references from the last quarter of the nineteenth century that document Pitcairn cats and laws concerning them. On 8 September 1878, Rear Admiral De Horsey of H.M.S. Shah arrived at Pitcairn. In a report he wrote dated 17 September 1878, he said of the islanders: ‘They have a few sheep, goats, pigs, fowls, cats, and dogs.’ ³⁷ His report went on to state that the ‘sheep, goats, pigs, fowls, dogs, and cats . . . are entirely free from the maladies that sometimes affect their kind’. ³⁸ In November 1878, Captain Samuel C. Jordan was told by the wife of the Simon Young, the pastor, that the Pitcairn Islanders were troubled by rats eating sugar cane and sweet potatoes. They had bred cats to control the rats, but ‘the cats, too, became a nuisance, and in their turn destroyed the chickens and young ducks’. ³⁹ On 20 July 1889, Captain Charles E. Barker of the U.S.S. Abardena entered in the ship’s log: ‘We got a little yellow cat from the Pitcairn people and it’s getting quite used to us now.’ ⁴⁰ In 1892, there were reported to be ‘wild goats and wild cats, the latter a great nuisance, because of their fondness for chickens’. ⁴¹ Another law concerning cats, dated 9 September 1878, was described by an 1899 Australian newspaper article as ‘deliciously quaint in its provisions and language’:

No person or persons are to kill any cat unless doing him damage. If anyone be found so doing, he will be punished by having his dog taken from him and be killed; and should the person have no dog, he shall be punished by the magistrate. Should a dog go out with his master and fall in with a cat and chase him, and the owner of the dog make all effort to save the cat, this will save his dog, though the cat died afterwards; but should no effort be made to save the cat, the dog must be confined for the first offence, and be killed for the second. ⁴²

Still another cat law from 1884 was published in the Pitcairn Island Civil Recorder dated 1 January 1893:

Law Sixteen (16). Any person or persons after this date, September 24, 1884, maliciously wounding, or causing the death of a cat, without permission, will be liable to such punishment as the court will inflict. Further, any person, or persons aiding, or abetting in the aforesaid misdemeanor, will also be convicted under the same indictment. Should any dog, going out with his master, fall in with a cat, and chase him, and no effort be made to save the cat, the dog must be killed for the first offence. Fine 10 shillings. Cats in any part of the island doing anyone damage, must be killed in the presence of one of the members of parliament. ⁴³

We suspect that a cat ‘doing damage’ to poultry was the most likely reason for it to be killed under these laws.

There are relatively few nineteenth- and twentieth-century descriptions of Pitcairn Island that contain more than a passing mention of cats. Some visitors to the island who made an effort to write detailed descriptions made note of their presence, but many others mentioned nothing about animals at all, or wrote only of livestock used as a food source. Visitors who landed on the island for only a short time could easily have missed seeing cats or may have thought them unworthy of mention when compared to the human drama around them. However, the Pitcairn laws for cats were widely publicized in a number of magazine and newspaper articles. Cat laws along with other laws concerning Pitcairn’s animals were seen by the outside world as indicative of a quaint and innocent way of life.

Twentieth century: Managing the cats

From the late nineteenth century through the first decades of the twentieth century, island court records and official reports recorded conflicts and disagreements between islanders concerning the behavior of animals, while ‘rats and wild cats created other problems’. ⁴⁴ Cats were seen on Pitcairn in July 1907, ⁴⁵ while a resident missionary also mentioned their presence in 1917. ⁴⁶ In June 1921, a visitor reported that ‘there are plenty of . . . wild chickens, not to mention wild cats, on the island. The islanders, of course, are not without their tame cats.’ ⁴⁷ Cat laws continued to be publicized, and headlined a 1937 article in the Sydney Morning Herald. ⁴⁸ Edwin Ferdon Jr. visited Pitcairn in 1956 and noted: ‘Dogs are numerous in the village, and a few cats are kept as pets.’ ⁴⁹ In March 1960, an informal census of random items and animals on Pitcairn listed that there were ‘cats unnumbered’. ⁵⁰ The Pitcairn Islanders reported in November 1962 that ‘wild cats are causing quite a lot of death amongst young chickens, so that any cat seen prowling around fowl is usually given a short shift’. The term ‘short shift’ apparently means that the cats were shot. The report continues by stating that an islander identified as Roy Clark ‘became so concerned about the “trigger happiness” of some of the boys that he made a special trip down to the pictures the other night to give a full description of his cat so it could be recognized and spared’. ⁵¹ This mention of the ‘trigger happiness’ of boys is noteworthy because it recalls the laws for cats of 1838 that established large fines for families of children that killed a cat. In January 1977, the Pitcairn people did another informal census of animals on the island and stated that there were approximately 47 tame cats. ⁵² No mention was made of wild (presumably feral) cats.

In 1997, the British Government and the World Wildlife Fund (UK) contracted with a New Zealand company called Wildlife Management International Limited (WMIL) to exterminate the brown rats (Rattus exulans) and feral cats on Pitcairn Island. The project was funded by the Department for International Development and Worldwide Fund for Nature (UK). The WMIL team stayed on Pitcairn from 13 April–4 December 1997 to perform the task. The Pitcairn Islanders nicknamed the extermination team ‘The Rat Pile’. Rats were targeted with an anticoagulant rodenticide that was placed along a dense network of cleared ‘grid lines’ cut through the entire island, approximately 25 metres apart. The Pitcairn cats were broken into three groups: (1) pet cats for breeding; (2) pet cats to be neutered and returned to their owners; and (3) feral cats to be put down. Three females and two males were saved for breeding and were kept in pens at two homes while the eradication was in progress. Residents were free to claim any cat on the island as their pet and request that it be sterilized by a veterinarian (brought from New Zealand as part of the WMIL team) and released to them instead of being put down. All pet cats and 17 feral cats were tested for feline AIDS (FIV) and feline leukemia (FeLV) and found to be negative, leading the veterinarian to conclude that the island was free of both diseases. A total of 45 feral cats were trapped, 25 in leg hold traps and 20 in cage traps. Another 11 feral cats died from secondary poisoning caused by eating rats that had ingested the rodenticide. Six more feral cats were shot and one was killed with a machete. Thus a total of 63 feral cats were known to have been eliminated during the eradication. ⁵³ An estimate for the total Pitcairn feral cat population prior to the eradication was given as more than 70, ⁵⁴ because it was assumed that a number of cats that had died from secondary poisoning were never located and counted. ⁵⁵ Altogether, 24 pet cats were neutered and five were allowed to remain fertile for future breeding, initially leaving the island with 29 cats. However, WMIL’s pet cat data shows that up to 10 of those 29 cats died while the team was still on the island (two from fight wounds, one from poisoning, one put down due to allergies, one put down for unspecified reasons, and five missing/presumed dead—probably from poison), leaving only 19 cats, including the five that were reserved for breeding. Two pet cats were poisoned, but they recovered after treatment with an antidote containing vitamin K1. ⁵⁶

WMIL proposed to the Pitcairn Island Council that it adopt a ‘cat ordinance’ and appoint a ‘cat officer’ to enforce it. The cat ordinance, reminiscent of the cat laws of the nineteenth century, was to require that all pet cats be ‘de-sexed’ except for ‘two breeding groups’. The breeding cats would be cared for by two families to be selected by the cat officer. Kittens born to the breeding cats were to be neutered if male and put down if female, as would ‘surplus’ male kittens, unless the cat officer authorized a kitten to ‘remain entire’ for future breeding. Breeding cats would be limited to three females and two males. Island families would normally be limited to two pet cats but could apply to own more ‘under special circumstances’. The limitation on pet cats would not apply to cats already kept by families. Any family leaving the island would be required to have someone else care for their cats or arrange through the cat officer to have them put down. The ordinance went on to encourage the killing of any stray or feral cats missed by the eradication programme and to provide guidance for permissions needed to import a cat to the island. ⁵⁷ There is no indication that the suggested cat ordinance was ever adopted by the Island Council and there is no reference to a cat ordinance on the Pitcairn government website.

WMIL returned to Pitcairn from 12 April–27 September 1998 in order to complete the rat eradication programme and to assess the results of the feral cat eradication program. Although it appeared that cat eradication had been successful, the islanders’ attitude toward the programme had completely changed and they now had ‘an extremely strong negative feeling’ about any further attempt to eradicate cats, should additional cats be found. This was, they said, due to the secondary poisoning of pet cats and the ‘loss of breeding potential due to the de-sexing carried out in 1997’. As a result, the team limited its activities regarding cats to inspection of the island for signs of feral cats. ⁵⁸

The Pitcairn Islanders did not inform the eradication team of any concern they might have had about the ancestry of the cats that were targeted by the eradication programme. ⁵⁹ An unintended consequence of the eradication of feral cats and the neutering of nearly all pet cats was that any extant ‘original’ genetic line of cats, sometimes referred to as ‘Bounty Cats’ by the Pitcairn Islanders, was probably terminated. ⁶⁰ The perceived loss of a line of original cats was disturbing to a number of residents. For example, a Pitcairn Islander posting to an internet discussion group using the screen name ‘Maimitihaven’ (the name of a residence on Pitcairn Island) wrote that:

The spaying of cats was done when the “rat pile” was here in 98. The saddest thing is our true Bounty Cats were shot, Neutered/spayed until there wasnt any breeding ones left. What was left to breed poisoned by eating the poisoned rats, and medication didnt reach the dying cats when they crawled off to die. ⁶¹

WMIL confirmed that the cats saved for breeding did not live very long after the departure of the eradication team but was unsure of the reason for the deaths of the relatively young cats. ⁶² A Pitcairn Islander currently living off the island, but who was living on Pitcairn at the time of the eradication, wrote in an email that she had a fertile female cat and was ‘hoping to get some kittens from her’, but that the cat ‘eventually succumbed to secondary poisoning, as did most of the domestic cats’. ⁶³

In 1999, rats began to reappear on Pitcairn in spite of the follow-up work done in 1998. ⁶⁴ By July 2000, there was an explosion in the rat population. A number of residents began shooting the rats with .22 rifles, killing as many as 200 rats in only a few days. They also obtained more rat poison, but found it difficult to use in wet weather. Traps were employed but were still insufficient to keep the rat population from growing. The rats were eating nearly all types of fruit and vegetables grown on the island, so it was decided to bring a pair of breeding cats from New Zealand. Those cats soon produced seven kittens and they were all given the rodenticide antidote to protect them from poisoned dead rats. ⁶⁵ Maimitihaven complained that the new cats brought in from New Zealand were ‘lazy’ and would not chase rats. She confirmed that the new cats had been introduced in 1999/2000, and ‘some of the cats raised were set off into the wild to help get rid of the rats’. ⁶⁶ Thus, feral cats were reintroduced to Pitcairn around 2000.

Twenty-first century: Cats into the future

In 2002, a series of postal stamps was issued to commemorate Pitcairn Island’s cats. Pitcairn residents photographed several well-known cats of the island and sent the pictures to New Zealand artist Nancy Tichborne, who painted images used for the stamps. The names of the cats depicted are ‘Simba Christian’, ‘Miti Christian’, ‘Nala Brown’ and ‘Alicat Pulau’. The ‘family’ name identified the Christian and Brown families and ‘Alicat Pulau’ lived at the school located at Pulau just outside Adamstown.

A 2010 review of invasive species impacts in UK overseas territories confirmed that cats had been reintroduced to Pitcairn Island, ⁶⁷ and as of 2016 were present in ‘low numbers’. ⁶⁸ In 2016, a report issued under the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) for the Darwin Project (funded by the UK’s Darwin Initiative) revived the discussion about rat and cat eradication on Pitcairn Island. The project manager was Dr Grant Harper. The report states that the biodiversity of Pitcairn could be increased if rats and cats were eradicated. Birds such as the endangered Pitcairn reed warbler (Acrocephalus vaughani) would benefit. Any such eradication project would require full engagement of the community with external organizations taking a ‘back seat’. The report also describes the economic impact of invasive species on Pitcairn as ‘minor’ compared to challenges of sustaining such a small, isolated population. During a visit to Pitcairn by Darwin Project personnel, a feasibility study for rat and cat eradication was completed. However, no action has been taken. Some residents of Pitcairn do not want cats eradicated until the island is free of rats. They have not forgotten the failed rat eradication effort in 1997–1998 when the rat population exploded following the successful eradication of feral cats. They are also concerned about pet cats being poisoned. However, it appears nearly impossible to protect the cat population because the techniques used to eliminate rats also indirectly affect the cats. The Darwin Project’s feasibility study and an operational plan remain unpublished out of concern that the Pitcairn community might view their publication as intention to act without local approval and could result in ‘uncontrolled rumors’ in the community. ⁶⁹ During a visit to Pitcairn Island in May 2018 we performed a survey of the residents to determine the number of pet cats on the island, and placed a baited trail camera at several sites to capture images of additional cats not identified as pets, which we classified as unowned cats. We determined that there were at least 57 cats on the island, 25 of those being pets associated with 10 of the 23 island households, with the remaining 32 cats unowned.

In early 2020, a visiting veterinarian performed health checks on cats and neutered a small number of them. He reported that the cats were generally in good physical condition, of healthy weight, and with only modest cases of fleas. Their population density appeared to be relatively low. The vet also provided some instruction to islanders on cat care and management. There are tentative plans for the veterinarian to return to Pitcairn periodically. ⁷⁰

Conclusion

European ships in the eighteenth century tended to be rat infested and often carried cats to keep them under control. Cats were present on the Bounty prior to loading the breadfruit and again when the mutineers obtained livestock and cats in Tahiti following their first attempt to settle at Tubuai. They also had cats aboard when they left Tubuai for the second time on 15 September 1789, to return to Tahiti. Cats were important enough to be mentioned several times by Morrison and were regarded by the mutineers as useful for rat control. We conclude that the Bounty must have had cats aboard when the mutineers departed Tahiti for the last time on the night of 21 September 1789, (only six days after Morrison had reported the Bounty to be ‘well stocked with . . .cats. . .’) to eventually find their way to Pitcairn Island about four months later. The only known written account of the Bounty’s arrival at Pitcairn, written by Teehuteatuaonoa (Jenny), the Tahitian partner of mutineer Isaac Martin, does not provide any information about cats. She included sparse details regarding the contents of the Bounty when it arrived at Pitcairn Island, referring only to landing the ‘property’ from the ship, and briefly mentioning the presence of hogs and poultry on the island. ⁷¹ However, the journal of Mr Newell, first officer of the Sultan in 1817, and the notes made by J.A. Moerenhout in 1829 both state that Pitcairn Islanders told them that cats had arrived with other livestock on the Bounty. Thus, there appears to be compelling evidence that cats were first transported to Pitcairn Island by the Bounty mutineers.

We believe that the cat population on Pitcairn has been significantly perturbed by humans numerous times. Initially (c1790) cats were introduced to the island. We surmise that upon introduction, the more socialized cats remained near habitations and were regarded as pets by some percentage of islanders, and less socialized cats distanced themselves from habitations and possibly established feral colonies. The historical references presented above suggest that the following sequence of events probably took place: the cats fed on rats and wild birds, and the cat population increased. The rats and birds became exhausted, and the cats began to feed on poultry. To prevent loss of poultry, the islanders began killing the cats. With the cat population diminished, the rat population surged and began to damage crops (fruit, vegetables, sugar cane). In order to control the rat population, the islanders passed laws to protect the cats, with large fines specifically directed at families with youths who killed cats. The cycle has more or less repeated throughout Pitcairn’s history, as can be seen in the various versions of laws regarding cats, reports of troublesome cats attacking chickens, reports of problems with rats, the killing of most of the cats in the early nineteenth century, and boys shooting cats in 1962. Most recently, the cat eradication of 1997, carried out to protect endemic birds rather than poultry, resulted in a rapid increase in rats that caused the islanders to import cats.

While it seems intuitive that a larger human population would support greater numbers of cats used for companion animals and household rat control, a linear model is almost certainly insufficient to describe the dynamics of the island’s total cat population, which includes unowned (stray and feral) cats. Possible nonlinear factors influencing the total cat population include availability of rats as prey, human responses to cats preying on wild birds or poultry, importation or exportation of cats, exceptional care for some (or all) cats by specific individuals, neutering or culling of kittens, adoption of laws and rules related to cats, diseases either in cats or prey, neglect or abandonment by humans, and migration of humans to or from the island. The historical record documents many such events, but there are insufficient quantitative data to develop a meaningful population model. However, it is reasonable to consider whether the cat population is, in some sense, in equilibrium with the rat population. A possible parameter to quantify population equilibrium would be the number of cats required for the rat population to be constant. The equilibrium cat population consists of both companion animals and feral cats, since both groups prey on rats. Regardless of the human population, whenever cats exceed the equilibrium number, the rat population falls and the cats gradually begin to prey on more wild birds and chickens, as was documented in the early 1800s. When cats are fewer than the equilibrium number, rat damage to crops increases. The latter case was demonstrated when rat numbers spiked after cats were eradicated in 1997. Therefore, during periods when the islanders have few complaints about either cats or rats, equilibrium is more likely to exist. That may have been the situation in mid-2018, based on our interviews with islanders. Our cat population survey suggests that ~60 cats might be an optimal number for the island. However, the historical record of ongoing complaints about cats and rats suggests that equilibrium is rarely achieved for very long.

Pitcairn Islanders are an eminently practical people, and their highest expectation is that all islanders contribute to the common goal of survival. The cats kept as companion animals receive attention and affection, are allowed to come and go as they please, and are fed cat food imported from New Zealand. Even the cats with semi-feral characteristics that will not closely approach humans but will enter houses for food are regarded as pets. In return for those privileges, cats are expected to uphold their traditional job as rat catchers. We witnessed a young male cat (an affectionate pet) coming into a house carrying a live rat in his mouth. The owners showed no surprise and allowed the cat unlimited play time with the rat on the kitchen floor. But in spite of the mutualism between these cats and humans, cats are sometimes victims of the overriding practicality of the islanders. When cat owners are away from the island, their cats are sometimes left to fend for themselves by hunting or visiting other homes for food. Until very recently veterinary care was not available except at an amateur level, and although some islanders have learned how to neuter male kittens, female kittens are more likely to be put down because spay surgery is beyond the islanders’ ability. At times entire litters are killed immediately after birth. ⁷²

Feral cats that live separately from humans are tolerated and sometimes fed, but the islanders were willing to sacrifice around 70 of those cats that existed in 1997 to achieve eradication of rats. But when the rats returned and cats were imported to control them, cats’ importance to the island was once again acknowledged. Some were purposely released into the wild to pursue the rats, effectively reviving the feral cat population that had been sacrificed only three years earlier. Others were featured on postage stamps, and the island newspaper pictured a cat and captioned it ‘Our future safeguard against rats. . .’. ⁷³ However, in view of the ambivalence toward cats that is seen throughout Pitcairn’s history, their elevated status may be fleeting, especially that of the feral cats. However, the possibility of future veterinary care and periodic neutering bodes well for both the cat and human populations, and if sustained, might lessen the friction that sometimes occurs between the two.

Surprisingly, there were no dogs on Pitcairn in 2018. Dogs were mentioned in many of the same historical references as cats, but unlike cats, there seems to be little practical use for dogs except as companion animals. The few goats that are kept do not require herding dogs and there is no game for hunting dogs. Dogs may have been viewed quite differently from cats by the mutineers, particularly by the Polynesians who accompanied them. Cats were already used for rat control and as companion animals by Tahitians such as Sir Joseph Banks’ friend Oberea, and Morrison wrote that Tahitians did not eat cats. However, the original breed of dog found in Tahiti (now extinct due to interbreeding with European dogs) was almost exclusively raised for food. ⁷⁴ Although there is no evidence that a genetic line of original cats from the Bounty survived until 1997, we surmise that there is a reasonable possibility that (at least) one did so. The historical record provides convincing evidence that cats arrived on the Bounty. With the exception of the near eradication of cats reported by J. Moerenhout in the time of John Adams (c1820), there is no record of any other concerted effort to eliminate cats on Pitcairn until the eradication of 1997. Without any prior well-organized eradication strategy such as that implemented by WMIL, and with the abundant prey available for feral cats such as rats and wild birds and sometimes poultry, there is no identifiable reason for the original line(s) of cats to have died out prior to 1997. Thus it is not unlikely that the Pitcairn Islanders are correct in their belief that an early line of cats, with a reasonable probability of having originated from the Bounty, was lost during the eradication. The question of whether certain cats on Pitcairn in 1997 were directly descended from cats of the Bounty or other early ships most likely can never be answered. The key point is that a number of islanders believe that there were Bounty Cats present on Pitcairn in 1997, and that the eradication led to their extinction on the island.

It is clear that some Pitcairn Islanders felt the loss of their original cats. Maimitihaven expressed sadness and also implied resentment that the cats reserved for breeding had been poisoned. The ‘very strong negative feelings’ about the cat eradication that WMIL reported in 1998 were still apparent in 2018, in that there was reticence on the part of some islanders to discuss their cats with outsiders such as ourselves. When questioned, two islanders mentioned the Bounty Cats with a slight tone of regret, even after 20 years. Why would these practical Pitcairners care about the ancestry of a cat? We can suggest two reasons. First, they have a deep reverence for their forebears, the Bounty and the island. The Bounty Cats had been on Pitcairn for as long as the people had been, sometimes protected, sometimes hunted, but always present. The cats’ ancestors had travelled on the Bounty with their own ancestors, and that shared history may have been significant to the Pitcairners, as is virtually every other aspect of the Bounty. This is evident in their high regard for Bounty relics, which are protected by law and proudly displayed, such as the Bounty’s anchor in its place of honour in the Adamstown square and the numerous items from the ship held in the local museum. Secondly, the islanders are deeply private people who detest outside interference, especially from governmental organizations. The loss of the Bounty Cats was likely viewed as damage done by meddling outsiders. Since the rat eradication was unsuccessful, they may have felt that the original cats were lost for no good reason. One islander was quite clear when questioned about the possibility of a future eradication, exclaiming ‘We don’t want anyone coming here and messing with our cats!’

There is one interesting possibility that could serve to appease Pitcairners who still regret the eradication. Some of the Bounty Cats might have been removed from Pitcairn prior to 1997 and continued the genetic line in another location, in the same way that the mutineers’ descendants spread to Norfolk Island, New Zealand and many other locations. For example, the cat that was given to Captain Barker of the U.S.S. Abardena in 1889 might have reproduced and continued its genetic line in some other part of the world. Thus, there is some possibility that there is today a population with a genetic component from the originally introduced cats, but in the absence of more information this remains speculative.