In search of the elusive and threatened fishing cat

In the wild nature, India has 15 species of the cat family. Our big cats, lions and tigers were very careful. Smaller wild cats – Karacal, rusty spotted cat, fisherman cat and so on.

The wetlands in India are home to a fisherman cat, which is a grayish brown fur, which grows twice the size of the pet, weighs seven to 12 kg and covered with black spots. In the area, this cat is usually apex hunter, that is, no other creature is hunted on it. Wetlands are living ecosystems characterized by water -filled soil in river flood beds, mangrvs and swamps.

Some unusual adaptations allow the fisherman cat to pass in a wet environment. Partially toothed claws show water tendencies, while swimming ability to swim, while completely dipping into a dense water -resistant coat and water. The protruding claws, which cannot be completely retracted, helps the cat with slippery sludge and fish. The diet of cats is primarily fish, but rodents, chickens and other small animals are always welcomed.

The fisherman cat stands close to the edge of the water, sitting or squatting. Almost 5% of the hunting time is dipped into water. In shallow water, the cat continues to move slowly, stops to clean a fish with claws before catching the mouth.

The populations of the fisherman cat are found in the scattered pockets: the Terai region of the Himalayas, some swamps of Western India, Sundarbans, along the eastern coast and Sri Lanka.

To follow this difficult night cat’s irregular populations, wildlife research uses camera traps close to the edge of the water. Fisherman Cat Project Tiasa Adhya and a collaborative network in Lake Chilka (see Fishingcat.org) made a detailed number and a conflict with people. Estimating the results gives us an estimation of approximately 750 fishing cats of 1,100 km2 of the lagoon (see :: Endangered Species Research54, 1, 2024).

This healthy number contrasts with the rapidly diminishing numbers of cats in Sundarbans. Fisherman cats were thought to have died in Rajasthan until the landscapes in Keoladeo National Park earlier this year.

The decline is largely due to loss of habitat. It is estimated that 30-40% of Indian wetlands have disappeared or severely disrupted in the last forty years. For this reason, the protection of wetland ecosystems is very important for fishing cat. Human rape seriously affected them. Many people see them as predators of fish pools and chicken clusters, and people have been documented in a worrying number of revenge killing. Society -based protection programs seem to hold the key to reducing this hostility.

This year, the Indian Wildlife Institute in Dehradun launched a project to monitor fishing cats in the Goldavari River in the Coringa Wildlife Conservation Area near Kakinada in Andhra Pradesh. The exact location data of the collar cats will be collected by using GPS collar which is CBS integration. Continuous data from the collars, preferred habitats, movement and human settlements will provide information about the places they encounter. All this will be useful to design strategies to increase fisherman cat populations.

This article was written with Sushil Chandani.