ISSN 1027-2992

CATnewsN° 68 | Autumn 2018

CATnews 68 Autumn 2018

02

CATnews is the newsletter of the Cat Specialist Group, a component of the Species Survival Commission SSC of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). It is pu��It is pu��lished twice a year, and is availa�le to mem�ers and the Friends of the Cat Group.

For joining the Friends of the Cat Group please contact Christine Breitenmoser at ch.breitenmoser@kora.ch

Original contri�utions and short notes a�out wild cats are welcome Send contributions and observations to ch.breitenmoser@kora.ch.

Guidelines for authors are availa�le at www.catsg.org/catnews

CATnews is produced with financial assistance from the Friends of the Cat Group.

Design: �ar�ara sur�er, werk’sdesign gm�hLayout: Ta�ea Lanz und Christine BreitenmoserPrint: Stämpfli Pu�likationen AG, Bern, Switzerland ISSN 1027-2992 © IUCN/SSC Cat Specialist Group

Editors: Christine & Urs Breitenmoser Co�chairs IUCN/SSC Cat Specialist Group KORA, Thunstrasse 31, 3074 Muri, Switzerland Tel ++41(31) 951 90 20 Fax ++41(31) 951 90 40 <urs.�reitenmoser@vetsuisse.uni�e.ch> <ch.�reitenmoser@kora.ch> Associate Editors: Keith Richmond Brian Bertram Maximilian Allen Juan Reppucci

Cover Photo: Clouded Leopard Photo Yadav Ghimirey

The designation of the geographical entities in this pu�lication, and the representation of the material, do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the IUCN concerning the legal status of any country, territory, or area, or its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or �oundaries.

CATnews 68 Autumn 2018

04

Fig. 1. Female fishing cat seen foraging and hunting fish in the intertidal creeks of Godavari mangroves (Photo G. Malla).

Fig. 2. Fight between male and female fishing cat in the intertidal creeks of Godavari mangroves (Photo G. Malla).

GIRIDHAR MALLA1, PAROMITA RAY1, P. S. RAJASEKAR2 AND K. SIVAKUMAR1

Observations on fighting among fishing cats from Go-davari mangroves, IndiaFishing cat Prionailurus viverrinus is an elusive and poorly known small cat species of the world, which is threatened due to various levels of anthropogenic pressures. The mangroves and surrounding habitats of the Godavari Delta are an important con-servation area, which supports a viable fishing cat population. Herewith, we describe a direct observation of an aggressive inter-sexual interaction of fishing cat and we believe that this observation will add to the knowledge of its behaviour in the wild.

Fishing cat is a highly threatened species in�ha�iting inland and coastal wetlands of Sou�th and South�east Asia (Pocock 1939, Nowell & Jackson 1996, Macdonald et al. 2010). The fishing cat is now categorised as Vulnera�le �y the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species (Mukherjee et al. 2016). On the eastern coast of India, fishing cats occur mostly in the man�grove forests and along coastal wetlands (Acharjyo & Misra 1975, Mukherjee et al. 2012). The Godavari delta comprises of an array of coastal ha�itats including a riverine estuary, sand�ars, �eaches, a �ay as well as large stretches of mangrove forests of which 235.7 km2 is protected as Coringa Wildlife Sanctuary (Ravishankar et al. 2004). These mangroves are home to unique fauna includ�ing the fishing cat which is an elusive and poorly known small cat species of the world (Kolipaka 2006, Malla 2016; Fig. 1). A long�term study was conducted in Coringa Wildlife Sanctuary and its surrounding man�groves �etween 2014 and 2017 to study the changes in the landscape and its �iodiversity due to climate change. As part of this stu�dy, significant information was gathered on fishing cats that included its ha�itat use in the delta, population status, and threats. We

had direct sightings of the species on several occasions giving us the opportunity to record its �ehaviour. In this paper, we descri�e one direct encounter wherein a fight �etween two individuals of fishing cats was o�served.This encounter occurred �etween a male and a female fishing cat along a su��tidal creek just outside the sanctuary area on 5 Fe�ruary 2017 at 20:00 h. The fight sequence continued for nearly five minutes. At first, a solitary female was seen walking along the creek in search for food during the low tide hours. While she was foraging at a spot something alerted her. Suddenly a male fishing cat appeared out of the mangrove forests and approached the female fishing cat. At this sudden and close approach, �oth pounced on each other, strik�ing and hissing at each other. This sent �oth rolling on the exposed mudflats. Immediately after this �oth took an aggressive stance star�ing at each other’s face. The male raised its head towards one side of the female, while the female’s head and �ody were lower. For �oth the cats, hair along the middle of the �ack and on the tail was erected. The female also made low�frequency growling calls at the male. This initial encounter �etween the two was o�served for a duration of 22 seconds.

The female su�sequently showed a defen�sive �ehaviour with her tail �ent downwards �elow her hind lim�s, �ut she occasionally raised her foreleg towards the male. She tried to strike the male fishing cat making a loud hissing sound, �ut the latter managed to move away. They resumed their �ody pos�tures again with mouths wide open, ears and whiskers �ent �ackwards. At this stage, they were showing full aggressive �ehaviour to each other. At a slight movement �y the male fishing cat, the female again tried to strike him. This posturing continued for more than 60 seconds when the male pounced on the fe�male, again sending �oth rolling on the mud. Both individuals were making hissing and growling calls.Su�sequently, the male resumed his position and turned towards the female in a curved �ody posture lifting its right forelim� in a �ent manner, its head pulled up and swinging side�ways without a pause. The female, on the other hand, appeared to �e in a su�missive mode (Fig. 2). She was still on the ground, only slightly lifting her right forelim� and growling at the male �ut at a lower frequency now. This continued for another 2 minutes. The male finally moved away from the female and walked into the mangrove forest. How�ever, the female remained at the site for a few more seconds, after which she continued walking along the creek and foraging for food. This o�servation of a fight �etween two fish�ing cats matches the description given �y Leyhausen (1979). He descri�ed the ‘mo�ile�threat display’, ‘right�angle threat display’ and the sideways head�swinging �ehaviour in the cats of the genus Prionailurus, which we also o�served in the two fishing cats during their fight. In the wild, small cat species are mainly solitary and they interact at infrequent intervals, mainly for mating or for esta�lishing territories (Kitchener 1991). Since this was a

short communication

CATnews 68 Autumn 2018

05

single o�servation, we cannot hypothesise on the possi�le reasons for their aggressive �ehaviour. Nevertheless, we �elieve this ac�count of a fight �etween a male and female fishing cat is an important o�servation and will help in studies aimed at understanding its �ehaviour in the wild.

AcknowledgementsThis o�servation was made during a survey which was part of a UNDP�GEF�MoEF&CC project ‘Esta��lishment of Knowledge �ased Management Sys�tem in the East Godavari River Estuarine Ecosystem (EGREE Project)’ of the Wildlife Institute of India and funded �y MBZ Species Conservation Grant for “Godavari Fishing Cat Project”. We would like to thank the Director and Dean of our institute for providing us the infrastructure and guidance. We would also like to acknowledge the support of An�dhra Pradesh Forest Department who provided us with necessary permissions to carry out the study.

ReferencesAcharjyo L. N. & Misra R. 1975. Occurrence of fish�

ing cat (Felis viverrina) in Orissa. Journal of the Bom�ay Natural History Society 72, 195–196.

Kitchener A. 1991. The natural history of the wild cats. Cornell University Press, Ithaca, United States of America. 280 pp.

Kolipaka S. 2006. Fishing Cat on India’s East Coast. Cat News 44, 22.

Leyhausen P. 1979. Cat Behaviour: The Predatory and Social Behaviour of Domestic and Wild Cats (transl. �y Tonkin B. A.). Garland STPM Press, New York, United States of America. 340 pp.

Macdonald D. W., Loveridge A. J. & Nowell K. 2010. Dramatis personae: an introduction to the wild felids. Biology and conservation of wild felids, 3–58.

Malla G. 2016. Ecology and conservation of Fishing Cat in Godavari mangroves of Andhra Pradesh. In First International Fishing Cat Conservation Symposium. Angie A. & Duckworth J. (Eds). Bad Marien�erg, Germany and Saltford, Bristol, United Kingdom. pp. 48–50.

Mukherjee S., Adhya T., Thatte P. & Ramakrishnan U. 2012. Survey of the Fishing Cat Prionailurus viverrinus Bennett, 1833 (Carnivore: Felidae) and some aspects impacting its conservation in India. Journal of Threatened Taxa 4, 3355�–3361.

Mukherjee S., Appel A., Duckworth J. W., Sander�son J., Dahal S., Willcox D. H. A., Herranz Muñoz

V., Malla G., Ratnayaka A., Kantimahanti M., Thudugala A., Thaung R. & Rahman H. 2016. Prionailurus viverrinus. IUCN Red List of Thre�atened Species 2016: e.T18150A50662615. http://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2016�2.RLTS.T18150A50662615.en. Downloaded on 12 August 2018.

Nowell K. & Jackson P. 1996. Wild cats: status sur�vey and conservation action plan. IUCN, Gland, Switzerland. 383 pp.

Pocock R. I. 1939. The Fauna of British India, Mam�malia, Volume I. Primates and Carnivora, 2nd

edn. Taylor and Francis, London, United King�dom. 463 pp.

Ravishankar T., Gnanappazham L., Ramasu�ra�manian R., Sridhar D., Navamuniyammal M. & Selvam V. 2004. Atlas of Mangrove Wet�lands of India, Part 2–Andhra Pradesh. M. S. Swaminathan Research Foundation, Chennai. 136 pp.

1 Wildlife Institute of India, Post Box # 18, Chand-

rabani, Dehradun 248 001, Uttarakhand, India2 Department of Environmental Sciences, Andhra

University, Waltair, Visakhapatnam, India

*<mallagiridhar@gmail.com>

short communication

RAHUL K. TALEGAONKAR1*, AGATHA C MOMIN1, PARAG NIGAM1 AND MRIDUL PATHAK2

Record of fishing cat from Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve, Madhya Pradesh, IndiaCamera trapping was undertaken during 2017 to study tiger dispersal and its prey in the Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve BTR. This exercise revealed the presence of fishing cat, Prionailurus viverrinus in the Kallwah range of the reserve. This is the first pho-tographic record of this species in the central Indian landscape.

The genus Prionailurus includes small spotted wild cats native to Asia, of which the leopard cat (P. bengalensis), the rusty�spotted cat (P. rubiginosus), and the fishing cat are found in India. The fishing cat has a discontinuous distri�ution in mangroves, wetlands, rivers, and swamps in parts of South and South�east Asia (Mukherjee et al. 2016). This cryptic and nocturnal cat has a generalist diet consuming a variety of prey such as murid rodents, �irds and fish (Mukherjee et al. 2016, Haque & Vijayan 1993). The fishing cat is included in Schedule I of the Indian Wildlife (Protection) Act, is listed as Vulnera�le in the IUCN Red List, and included in Appendix II of the Con�

vention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora CITES (Muk�herjee et al. 2016). The distri�ution of the fishing cat in India is widespread �ut patchy, from Bharatpur in Ra�jasthan, Sur Sarovar Bird Sanctuary in Agra, along the Himalayan (up to 1,525 m), through eastern India into Andhra Pradesh (Pocock 1939, Nowell & Jackson 1996, Sunquist & Sunquist 2002, Kolipaka 2006, Sharma 2016). It has recently �een recorded in areas lack�ing historical records as for example in the Krishna River mangroves in Andhra Pradesh (Kantimahanti 2016), in semi�arid areas of Rantham�hore Tiger Reserve (Sadhu & Red�

dy 2013), in several small pockets across the eastern coast and eastern states of India, and many are perhaps yet to �e discovered (Ad�hya et al. 2011). Ha�itat loss and fragmenta�tion as well as illegal killing �y indiscriminate trapping, snaring and poisoning are the major threats to this species (Mukherjee et al. 2016). Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve (23°30'–23°47' N / 80°11'–80°47’ E) lies on the extreme north�eastern �order of Madhya Pradesh on the northern flanks of the eastern Satpura Moun�tain range. BTR comprises of two conserva�tion units namely the Bandhavgarh National Park (442,842 km2) and the Panpatha Wild�life Sanctuary (245,842 km2). Twenty streams flow through the park that eventually flow into the river Son, an important southern tri��utary to the Ganges. Vegetation of BTR falls under five categories: moist peninsular low level sal forest, northern dry mixed deciduous forest, dry deciduous scru�, dry grassland and West Gangetic moist mixed deciduous forest (Champion & Seth 1968). The park lies within the tropical zone. Temperatures as low as 2.2 °C (36 °F) and as high as 44 °C (111 °F) with an average rainfall of 1,173 mm (46 in) have �een recorded in the region. During the animal monitoring exercise in BTR, on 1 Janu�