Taxonomic Notes
The Fishing Cat is placed in
Prionailurus according to genetic analysis (Johnson
et al. 2006, O'Brien and Johnson 2007, Kitchener
et al. 2017).
Justification
The Fishing Cat is widely distributed from southern Pakistan, northern India, southern Nepal and Bangladesh to Myanmar, southern Thailand and western Cambodia. However, its distribution is discontinuous as indicated by large gaps between known population units in the lower reaches of the Indus River and the Indian and Nepal Terai region, and between coastal areas along the Bay of Bengal and the Gulf of Thailand. No land corridor exists between continental and Sri Lankan populations. In all range countries, the Fishing Cat largely inhabits wetlands, riverine and mangrove forests, marshes, swamps and grasslands in the vicinity of waterbodies. Current human-dominated landscapes once featured these habitat types but are now fragmented due to severe land use changes in favour of aquaculture, agriculture, infrastructure and industrialisation since at least the late 1980s.
Habitat loss and fragmentation of the Fishing Cat’s preferred habitat is aggravated by water pollution in aquaculture sites due to the use of chemicals and sewage reaching surrounding areas untreated. Killing of Fishing Cats is most pronounced in the Ganges Brahmaputra delta and northeastern Bangladesh, mostly in retaliation for perceived loss of small livestock and fish-stock. Linear infrastructure bisecting natural habitats has been entailing roadkills and mortally wounded Fishing Cats, especially in India and Sri Lanka. Several cases of Fishing Cat meat and body parts being consumed by ethnic groups have been reported in India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Thailand and Cambodia. There is also some evidence of Fishing Cats being caught, kept and traded as pets in Pakistan, Bangladesh and Thailand.
The presently known and extrapolated sizes of population units suggest a global population of fewer than 8,000 mature individuals. Since Southeast Asia harbours the smallest population units of all, presently estimated at 200 individuals at most, this population faces a far greater extinction risk than populations in South Asia. We suspect a global population decline of 30% or more in the past three Fishing Cat generations during 2008–2023, as quality and extent of suitable grassland and wetland habitats declined during this period by more than 30% in several regions, where land use and land cover changes have been studied. We consider it highly likely that this decline will continue and accelerate in the future three generations during 2024–2038, concurrent with presumed future trends of severe and extensive habitat conversions and degradations in all range countries, especially in coastal areas. Effective and sustainable interventions are unlikely to be of sufficient magnitude to prevent such decline rates. We therefore categorize the Fishing Cat as Vulnerable under criteria A2cd+3cd+4cd.
Geographic Range Information
The Fishing Cat is widely but discontinuously distributed in South and Southeast Asia from southern Pakistan in the west to Cambodia in the east, and from the Himalayan foothills of the Terai and the Dooars in the north to Sri Lanka and Thailand in the south. However, currently known occurrence is highly localized with large gaps of more than 100 km between sites with authenticated presence records. Such gaps are most prevalent in the basins of the Indus, Ganges, Brahmaputra, Ayeyarwady and Chao Phraya rivers, and along the coasts of the Bay of Bengal and the Gulf of Thailand. At present, its main range appears to be the Indian and Nepal Terai, and the lower reaches and delta of the Ganges and Brahmaputra in India and Bangladesh. Its range extends along major river basins along the east coast of India and throughout much of Sri Lanka. Its range in Southeast Asia is limited to the southern Ayeyarwady Region of Myanmar, coastal areas of western peninsular Thailand and coastal Cambodia. In Viet Nam and Indonesia, it has not been recorded since the early 2000s.
In most range countries, the Fishing Cat was recorded in new locations since the previous assessment of 2016. The majority of records were obtained during camera trapping surveys targeting the Tiger Panthera tigris in protected areas of the Terai, Dooars and Sundarban Mangroves, and the Leopard Panthera pardus in both protected and unprotected landscapes in Sri Lanka. Its distribution outside protected areas is still not well understood, and vast stretches with potentially suitable habitat in many human-dominated landscapes have not been surveyed to date. This paucity of surveys outside protected area networks clouds our understanding of the Fishing Cat’s biogeography, and how site-specific factors affect its distribution (Rana et al. 2022).
The Fishing Cat occurs at sea level in parts of its range (Das et al. 2017, Thaung et al. 2018, Naing Lin and Platt 2019) to an elevation of 436 m in the Indian Terai (Guleria et al. 2022), which represents the highest reliable elevation record in this region to date. In Sri Lanka, it has been recorded up to 2,277 m in Horton Plains National Park (Anjali Watson and Andrew Kittle, unpublished data).
Please see Supplementary Information for details of distribution by range country.
Population Information
Camera trap surveys indicate that Fishing Cat population density in inland protected areas of the Indian Terai is 3–3.5 individuals/100 km2 (Nair 2012). Density is significantly higher in coastal areas, both within and outside protected areas ranging from 18–70 individuals/100 km2 (Sathiyaselvam et al. 2016, Phosri et al. 2021, Adhya et al. 2024). We therefore extrapolate these values to those inland and coastal areas, respectively, where population density estimates are lacking.
In areas with fewer than three records in one Fishing Cat generation, we refrain from estimating population size due to the paucity of surveys and lack of data. These areas are predominantly situated in human-dominated landscapes, where the Fishing Cat's presence has become known through media reports about killed individuals (see e.g. Chowdhury et al. 2015, Chakraborty et al. 2022).
Based on available and extrapolated estimates, we infer a total population size of 3,194–7,527 Fishing Cats. Most of the population resides in South Asia, with an estimated population size of 1,768–5,088 individuals in India and Bangladesh, and 1,392–2,187 individuals in Sri Lanka. Thailand and Cambodia combined retain an estimated population of 131–200 individuals at most.
Please see Supplementary Information for details of estimated population densities and sizes in the range countries.
Habitat and Ecology Information
In the Indus River basin, the Terai and Indian Dooars, camera trap records of the Fishing Cat have been obtained in mosaics of forests and dense grasslands covered by tall Imperata, Phragmites, Saccharum and Typha grasses (Nair 2012, Islam et al. 2016, Mishra et al. 2018, Jhala et al. 2020, Jhala et al. 2021, Guleria et al. 2022). In protected areas, it was also recorded in open riverine forest interspersed with grasses and herbs (Yadav et al. 2018), and in grassland patches close to streams, sandbanks, swamps, oxbow lakes and reservoirs (Taylor et al. 2016, Mishra et al. 2018, Yadav et al. 2020, Jhala et al. 2021, Jayasekara and Mahaulpatha 2022). In Indian Tiger Reserves, three individuals were recorded in dry deciduous forests at most 6 km away from streams (Sadhu and Reddy 2013, Talegaonkar et al. 2018, Dutta et al. 2021). Mangrove forests and remnant mangrove patches represent important habitats along coasts of the Bay of Bengal and the Gulf of Thailand (Sathiyaselvam et al. 2016, Das et al. 2017, Thaung et al. 2018, Chutipong et al. 2019, Naing and Platt 2019, Rana 2020, Shankar et al. 2020, Jhala et al. 2020, Jhala et al. 2021, Phosri et al. 2021). Outside protected areas, it has repeatedly been recorded near active and abandoned fishponds, in rice fields, oil palm and coconut plantations, abandoned unused land, marshland and on river banks (Cutter 2015, Dahal 2016, Taylor et al. 2016, Kantimahanti et al. 2019, Kolipaka et al. 2019, Naing and Platt 2019, Chakraborty et al. 2020a, b, Jhala et al. 2021, Mishra et al. 2021, Phosri et al. 2021). In the Indian state of Odisha, its presence in the Chilika Lagoon is higher in Phragmites dominated marshland than in more saline areas with sparse vegetation cover (Adhya et al. 2023). It has also been sighted in sugarcane fields during harvest seasons (Mishra 2022, Divyashree Rana pers. comm. 6 January 2023) and documented near commercial fish farms adjacent to tourist destination spots in West Bengal and Odisha (Samrat Chakraborty in litt. 21 August 2023, Adhya et al. 2024). In Sri Lanka, it also inhabits tea estates and dry rocky slopes in the vicinity of rivers, lakes and reservoirs (Kittle and Watson 2018), wetland environments in Colombo (Ratnayaka et al. 2022), both dry and wet zone forest patches, and intermediate savannah-type forests near waterbodies (Anjali Watson and Andrew Kittle, unpublished data).
A genetic study by Rana (2020) using scat samples and microsatellite markers reveals a low diversity and strong genetic structure between Fishing Cat populations in India. This suggests several landscape level barriers due to the patchiness of wetland habitats and fragmentation owing to anthropogenic activities. The Terai population has comparatively high genetic diversity with a metapopulation structure (Rana 2020).
The home ranges of three radio-collared female Fishing Cats in Chitwan National Park were estimated at 4–6 km², and that of a male at 16–22 km² (Sunquist and Sunquist 2002). The home range of a male individual in Kishanpur Wildlife Sanctuary was estimated at 18.46 km² (Nair 2012). In and around Khao Sam Roi Yot National Park, four females had home ranges of 2.3–5.3 km² in the dry season and of 3.0–4.4 km² in the wet season; the home range of a male varied from 8.9 km² in the dry season to 12.6 km² in the wet season (Cutter 2015). Camera trap records in the same study area indicate that female Fishing Cats moved 598–1,335 m, whereas males moved 1,373–2,285 m per day (Phosri et al. 2021). Home ranges of one male and two female Fishing Cats in the same area was estimated at 2.21–4.33 km² and 3.44–8.49 km², respectively, in the wet season of 2022 (Klakhaeng et al. 2023). Two females in urban areas of Colombo had home ranges of 3.06–3.39 km², and two males of 32.02–32.99 km² (Ratnayaka et al. 2022). Data of 11 radio-collared Fishing Cats in Nepal’s Koshi Tappu Wildlife Reserve indicate that males move in an area of about 18–58.4 km² and females in 1.2–34.7 km² both inside and outside the reserve (Rama Mishra in litt. 26 April 2024).
Information on the reproduction of the Fishing Cat in the wild is limited to a few incidental observations. Mating of Fishing Cats was observed in late February to early March in the Indian Sundarbans (Sanyal and Roy 1985). Gestation period is 63–70 days (Sunquist and Sunquist 2002), and litters consist of one to three kittens (Sanyal and Roy 1985, Datye 1993, Cutter and Cutter 2009, Mishra et al. 2021, Divyashree Rana in litt. 21 August 2023). Kittens of less than 15 days old were observed in May and January (Sanyal and Roy 1985, Divyashree Rana in litt. 21 August 2023). Females followed by kittens of several weeks of age were observed in mid-March, early January and April to May (Datye 1993, Cutter and Cutter 2009, Malla et al. 2019). In the Bhitarkanika mangroves of Odisha, kittens are sighted in all seasons (Manas K Das, Range Officer, pers. comm. 7 September 2023), and newborn kittens were observed from November to June in the Chilika Lagoon (Tiasa Adhya in litt. 21 December 2023).
The Fishing Cat was thought to be largely nocturnal (Mukherjee 1989, Sunquist and Sunquist 2002, Sathiyaselvam et al. 2016). Several camera trap records obtained since 2011 show that it is also active during daylight hours (Nair 2012, Islam et al. 2016, Mishra et al. 2018, Shankar et al. 2020, Yadav et al. 2020, Jayasekara and Mahaulpatha 2022, Kantimahanti et al. 2022, Anjali Watson and Andrew Kittle, unpublished data).
Faeces collected in Keoladeo National Park showed that Fishing Cats predominantly consumed fish all year round, followed by birds, insects and rodents (Haque and Vijayan 1993). Scat collected in Khao Sam Roi Yot National Park indicates that fish constituted 42% of the diet, followed by mammals and birds 24% each, reptiles 5% and crustaceans 2% (Cutter 2015). Scat collected in the same national park contained remains of 16 species including four fish, three rodent and three bird species; the diet varied slightly between summer, rainy and winter seasons, consisting of fish (46.9–54.5%), rodents (21.8–27.7%), birds (19.1–19.8%), insects (0–2.7%), snakes, crabs, snails and arthropods (Wongson et al. 2024). Fishing Cats were also observed hunting an Indian Pond Heron Ardeola grayii, a Dog-faced Water Snake Cerberus rynchops (Malla et al. 2018) and a Checkered Keelback Fowlea piscator (Kantimahanti et al. 2022). The first arboreal behaviour of Fishing Cats foraging on nests of colonial waterbirds 8 m above ground in the canopy of a tree was documented in 2022 (Sadik and Akash 2024). Scat collected in the Coringa mangroves contained remains of fish (36.6%), crabs (17.8%), rodents (16.8%), birds (14.8%), reptiles (11.4%), molluscs and insects (Malla et al. 2024).
Threats Information
The major threat to the Fishing Cat across range countries appears to be the loss and fragmentation of forests, grasslands, wetlands, marshes and mangrove habitats due to the expansion of aquaculture, agriculture, infrastructure and industrialisation (see details in Supplementary Information). The expansion of commercial aquaculture in particular results in the pollution of the entire food chain due to microplastics and the use of chemicals and sewage reaching surrounding areas untreated (Chatterjee et al. 2024, Mitra et al. 2024). In most range countries, land use changes are aggravated by further conflict with humans for resources like space and small livestock. Such conflicts entail killing of Fishing Cats in retaliation for perceived livestock loss. With expanding linear infrastructure, roadkills are a potential major threat, especially in India and Sri Lanka.
Poaching is a potential threat to the Fishing Cat in Cambodia (Thaung et al. 2018). Indiscriminate snaring of mammals in Cambodia and Viet Nam is a major and ongoing threat with a devastating impact on the region’s wildlife (Gray et al. 2021).
Please see Supplementary Information for detailed threats by range country.
Use and Trade Information
Little is known about illegal use and trade of the Fishing Cat. In Pakistan, two captive individuals were confiscated and rescued in Karachi in 2015 (Bhatti 2015, Zubairi and Naidu 2016). Three live Fishing Cat kittens were offered for sale on a market in spring 2024, but it was not possible to figure out the location of this incident in Pakistan or abroad (Javed Mahar in litt. 17 May 2024). A few cases of ritual hunting of Fishing Cats for meat and skin have been reported in southern West Bengal (Mukherjee et al. 2012). Tribal people in Andhra Pradesh occasionally hunt Fishing Cats for meat (Kantimahanti et al. 2019). Indigenous hunters in Sri Lanka’s Central Province and in northeastern Bangladesh allegedly consume Fishing Cat meat and use their body parts for medicinal purposes (Thudugala 2016, Sultana et al. 2022). In the period 2016–2021, the Bangladesh Forest Department seized 24 live individuals from illegal trafficking that were destined as pets to India or West Asia (Uddin et al. 2023). A few local people in Thailand also admitted capturing Fishing Cats for sale as pets and eating their meat (Cutter 2015, Chutipong et al. 2019). In Cambodia, a dead Fishing Cat was recovered at a bushmeat stall near the Tonle Sap wetlands in 2018 (Herranz Muñoz and Vong 2022).
Conservation Actions Information
The Fishing Cat is listed in Appendix II of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, requiring permits for international trade (Acharjyo 1998). In Pakistan’s Sindh province, the Fishing Cat has been protected since 2020 under the First Schedule of the Sindh Wildlife Protection, Preservation, Conservation and Management Act 2020, rendering possession, hunting and trading of protected species illegal (Umar Farooq 2020). In India, it has been protected since 1972 under the highest protection level Schedule I of the Wildlife (Protection) Act (Acharjyo 1998) and in the Wildlife (Protection) Amendment Act (2022) (Ministry of Law and Justice 2022). In Nepal, it is not listed as protected under the National Parks and Wildlife Conservation Act, 2029 (1973), but hunting wildlife without a license is prohibited (Nepal Law Commission 2018). In Bangladesh, it has been fully protected since 1973 under the Wild Life Preservation Order and since 2012 under the Wildlife (Conservation and Security) Act, 2012 (Sultana et al. 2022). In Myanmar, the Fishing Cat is completely protected under the Conservation of Biodiversity and Protected Areas Law of 2018 (Thu et al. 2024). It is strictly protected in Sri Lanka under the Fauna and Flora Protection (Amendment) Act of 2009 (Parliament of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka 2009). In Thailand, it is protected under the Wildlife Preservation and Protection Act of 2019, which prohibits intentional killing (Phosri et al. 2021). In Cambodia’s Natural Resource and Environmental Code, it is listed as common with minimal penalties for its trade and consumption (Gray et al. 2017).
Sri Lanka was the first nation to legally protect all its mangrove forests in 2015 (Veettil et al. 2023). Mangrove restoration and plantation projects have been implemented in Pakistan (Gilani et al. 2021), India (Kubo et al. 2018, Parida and Kumar 2020, Samanta et al. 2021, Choubey 2024), Bangladesh (Uddin et al. 2022), Sri Lanka (UNCC 2023) and Cambodia (Veettil and Quang 2019). The Fishing Cat also benefits from establishment of wildlife corridors in the Indian Terai and the Central Highlands of Sri Lanka (Jhala et al. 2021, Resplendent Ceylon 2021, WWCT 2024).
Local people have been sensitized to issues pertaining to the conservation and protection of the Fishing Cat in and around several survey areas in Sri Lanka, West Bengal, Odisha and Andhra Pradesh in India, in Nepal, Thailand and Cambodia (Thudugala 2016, Kolipaka et al. 2019, Malla et al. 2019, Mishra et al. 2021, Phosri et al. 2021, Herranz Muñoz and Vong 2022, Kantimahanti et al. 2022, Adhya et al. 2024). In India, the Fishing Cat has been declared as the State Animal of West Bengal and as the flagship species of Odisha’s Chilika Lagoon; a blueprint designed to safeguard the Fishing Cat across the country provides a coherent scheme for essential district-level conservation actions (Rana et al. 2022). Educational material and outreach strategies need to be developed and implemented in human-dominated landscapes with a high conflict density like West Bengal and Bangladesh (Chakraborty et al. 2022, Sultana et al. 2022).
