Survey of the Fishing Cat Prionailurus viverrinus Bennett, 1833 (Carnivora:Felidae) and some aspects impacting its conservation
in India
Shomita Mukherjee 1,
Tiasa Adhya 2, Prachi Thatte 3 & Uma Ramakrishnan4
1SalimAli Centre for Ornithology and Natural History, AnnaikattyPost, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu 641108, India
2,3,4National Centre for Biological Sciences, GKVK Campus, Bellary Road, Bengaluru,
Karnataka 560065, India
Email: 1 shomitam@gmail.com
(corresponding author), 2 tiasaa@ncbs.res.in, 3 prachit@ncbs.res.in,4 uramakri@ncbs.res.in
Date of publication (online): 26 November 2012
Date of publication (print): 26 November 2012
ISSN 0974-7907 (online) | 0974-7893 (print)
Editor: Andreas Wilting
Manuscript details:
Ms #
o3199
Received 13 May 2012
Final received 21 September 2012
Finally accepted 29 October 2012
Citation: Mukherjee, S., T. Adhya, P. Thatte & U. Ramakrishnan (2012). Survey of the
Fishing Cat Prionailurus viverrinus Bennett, 1833 (Carnivora:Felidae) and some aspects impacting its conservation
in India. Journal of Threatened Taxa 4(14):
3355–3361.
Copyright: © ShomitaMukherjee, Tiasa Adhya, Prachi Thatte & Uma Ramakrishnan 2012. Creative Commons Attribution
3.0 Unported License. JoTTallows unrestricted use of this article in any medium for non-profit purposes,
reproduction and distribution by providing adequate credit to the authors and
the source of publication.
Acknowledgements: We
thank Panthera Foundation, New York and WWF India,
for funds to complete this study. We thank the forest departments of Andhra
Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh and
West Bengal for permits for issuing permits and extending valuable help and
hospitality during the survey. We
thank the Director SACON and all staff, students and faculty for assistance and
encouragement in letting this run smoothly. We thank NCBS and laboratory 3
members for collaborating and helping with logistics of lab work. We specially thank Mr Jairaj Singh and the Tiger Haven Society for hosting
and helping us during our visit to Dudhwa National
Park, Mr. Joydeep Sarkarfor hosting us on our visit to Corbett National Park and Ms. Shika Singh in KatarniaghatWildlife Sanctuary. Several
individuals and volunteers contributed towards the survey and without them this
would have been an impossible task. They are Ovee Thorat, Narayan Mondol, Ushneesh Das, Hindol Ahmed, Navya R, Arjan Basu Roy, Brikramaditya Roy, Dr.
P. Manna, Arjen van’t Hof, Dayani Chakravarty, Aditya Panda, Shekhar Kolipaka, Kalpana. We specially thank Sonia Joseph for
sequencing work.
urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:7EC1D08D-85B7-4A52-BBC4-41BDBE5A1D64
Abstract: The Fishing Cat Prionailurus viverrinusis a medium sized cat that is widely but patchily distributed across Asia and
strongly associated with wetlands. It is among the 15 felid species that inhabit India and like other
smaller cat species it is very poorly understood. Apart from a few recent surveys in
specific locations, no concerted effort has been made to assess its current
distribution and threats to its persistence within India. In this study we collected scats from
natural habitats, through six states including five protected areas throughout
India and performed informal interviews with locals to get a better overview of
the current distribution and threats for Fishing Cats in India. Of the 114
scats used for molecular analysis, 37% were assigned to felids, including 19
Fishing Cats. We confirmed that
Fishing Cat populations persisted in all locations where they were recorded
before, including Keoladeo Ghana, from where it was
reported in recent years that fishing cats are possibly extinct. Most populations face imminent threats
with the worst being in the Howrah District of West Bengal where 27 dead
individuals were traced during the study period of only one year. The major threats across populations
include ecologically unbalanced land policies and land uses, direct persecution
due to human-Fishing Cat conflicts as well as ritual hunts. To address these threats we recommend a
stronger dialogue among scientists, policy makers, administrators, locals and
other stake holders such as commercial fish and prawn
cultivators. Further awareness
campaigns for stakeholders, and surveys for monitoring fishing cat populations,
studying their ecology and estimating economic losses to local people due to
the Fishing Cat predation on livestock and poultry, is needed in order to
design effective conservation strategies.
Keywords: Distribution, Felidae, Fishing Cat, India, molecular tools, survey,
threats.
Abbreviations: DNA - Deoxyribonucleic Acid; PCR -
Polymerase Chain Reaction; NCBI - National Centre for Bioinformatics.
For
figures, tables -- click here
The Fishing Cat Prionailurus viverrinus is one of the 15 felids that inhabit
India (Nowell & Jackson 1996). Like the other small cats in the
country, little is known about its ecology and conservation status. Existing knowledge on distribution and behaviour is based on observations mainly done many
decades ago (Pocock 1939; Nowell& Jackson 1996; Sunquist & Sunquist 2002), with only a few serious systematic efforts
into determining their current distribution or status within the country
(Kumara & Singh 2004; Kolipaka 2006; Datta et al. 2008). The Fishing Cat is included in the
Schedule I of the Indian Wildlife (Protection) Act (Anonymous 1972) and listed
as Endangered in the 2010 assessment of the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species
(Mukherjee et al. 2010a), as throughout its range the Fishing Cat habitat is
severely threatened (Mukherjee et al. 2010a). Fishing Cats are wetland specialists and
early accounts on their distribution in India suggest that they occur around
major wetlands and mangroves across the country (Pocock1939; Nowell & Jackson 1996). These ecosystems are highly threatened
due to competition for resources with humans, such as land, water and
fish. Several wetlands across India
are rapidly being converted into agricultural land, fragmented or destroyed, to
meet the demands of a burgeoning human population (Prasad et al. 2002). In the 2010 IUCN assessment it was
believed that the westernmost Fishing Cat population in India (in Keoladeo Ghana National Park, Bharatpur,
Rajasthan) was already extinct since there were no reports for a couple of
years (Mukherjee et al. 2010a; Bholu Abrar Khan pers. comm. 07 February 2011).
The distribution of the Fishing Cat is intriguing since
it is widespread but patchy, from Bharatpur in Rajasthan,
along the Himalayan foothills, through eastern India into Andhra Pradesh (Pocock 1939; Nowell & Jackson
1996; Sunquist & Sunquist2002; Kolipaka 2006). With earlier records of the cat being
largely restricted to protected areas (Nowell &
Jackson 1996), it was not known if viable populations of this species occurred
outside protected areas. Further,
details of threats to the species and the current conservation status remain
largely unknown. Recent surveys
(Kumara & Singh 2004; Datta et al. 2008), through
camera trapping and interviews with locals, did not record Fishing Cats, but it
remained unclear if this was a result of the cryptic lifestyle of the species
or if the absence is an indication of its actual status. In this study we mainly focussed on the molecular analysis of non-invasively
collected faecal samples to elucidate the presence of
Fishing Cats.
This paper is an overview of the current distribution and
threats for Fishing Cats in India. We focussed on regions known to have Fishing Cat
populations, in order to update information on presence, persistence and
conservation status and did not aim to survey new potential sites of presence.
Material
and Methods
The study was conducted between April 2010 and May 2011.
Survey
for presence through scat collection and analysis: Field
sampling for scats was done mainly in the drier winter months from November
2010 to February 2011, except for a site in Andhra Pradesh (Coringamangroves) that was sampled in June 2010. The monsoon months (June to September) could not be utilisedfor sampling since scats exposed to water often do not give good results due to
fungal attacks or because the outermost layer containing intestinal cells is
washed off (Mukherjee et al. 2010b). The survey was conducted through the states of Andhra Pradesh (Coringa Wildlife Sanctuary), Odisha(Mangalajodi), West Bengal (Howrah, Hooghly, Sundarbans, Jhargram), Uttar
Pradesh (Dudhwa National Park, KatarniaghatWildlife Sanctuary), Uttarakhand (Corbett Tiger
Reserve), Rajasthan (KeoladeoGhana National Park) (Fig. 1).
Within each locality sampled, scats were collected from
areas where the probability of locating Fishing Cat scats was high (areas with
large water bodies and reed beds especially those that had culverts and bridges
close by, since from earlier observations these were areas marked profusely by
Fishing Cats). Since in any given
area several similar sized carnivores coexist, all potential carnivore scats
were collected. Only a small
portion of the scat was collected, dried with a hair dryer on medium heat and
intensity and couriered to the laboratory at the National Centre for Biological
Sciences where further analysis was conducted.
DNA extraction was done using commercially available QIAmp (QIAGEN) stool and tissue kits with minor
modifications in incubation periods of the manufacturer’s protocol (see
Mukherjee et al. 2007 for details). All extractions were done in a
separate room, free from PCR products and any source of contamination. Controls
were added to every extraction batch to monitor contamination. We used the 16s rRNAfelid specific primers for species identification. PCR and sequencing protocols
are described in Mukherjee et al. (2010b). Sequences were aligned with the only reference sequence from GenBank (accession number: AF006451.1 GI:2218235)
for species identification.
Assessment
of threats: A semi-structured questionnaire (Appendix 1) was used to
interview a total of 200 villagers (from Howrah and Hooghly districts of West
Bengal) between 45–60 years of age. Ten people were interviewed from each village for a total of 20 villages
in order to assess potential threats of Fishing Cats. In Howrah, West Bengal, a more detailed
examination of threats was conducted by one of the authors (Tiasa Adhya). She
interviewed 20 people from 38 villages of different age groups with around 40%
of the interviewees falling in the age category of 30–50. Causes of deaths were collected through
a network of local informers. In
some cases the villagers who killed the cats themselves contacted the survey
team and in most cases (barring a couple) the dead Fishing Cats were
photographed as evidence.
Results
Survey
for presence: In all, 151 scat samples were collected from the
surveyed regions including a tissue sample of a Fishing Cat that was killed by
villagers in Aima Village, Howrah District, West Bengal. Since Fishing Cats defecate in ‘latrines’ and several scats of the same
individual can occur in a single location, we used just a single scat that
provided results on the first instance. Hence, of the 151 scats collected from natural habitats DNA was
extracted from 114. DNA extracts
from 37 scats (32.5%) amplified with the felid specific primers and results are
listed in Table 1.
PCR products of four scats failed to produce reliable
sequences and thus were excluded from the analysis. Of the remaining, 19 were
identified as Fishing Cat scats and the rest were of Jungle Cat Felis chaus (N =
11) and Leopard Cat Prionailurus bengalensis (N = 3) (Table 1). Fifteen of the 19 Fishing Cat scats were
from West Bengal and the Terai region of Dudhwa/Katarniaghat. No Fishing Cat scat was located from
Corbett National Park. The Fishing Cat scat located in KeoladeoGhana National Park, Bharatpur proved recent claims
of its potential extinction in this area wrong. Following this rediscovery a Fishing Cat
was observed not far from the place the scat was found (see discussion).
Assessment
of threats: Table 2 lists observed threats faced by Fishing Cats
(potentially also other wildlife species) in the different study regions. Habitat loss attributed to land use
policy and economic developments (commercial fisheries/aquaculture, brick
industries, agriculture) are a major threat in some areas. In Kolkata a pair of Fishing Cats was
captured in the vicinity of the International airport and is now housed in the
Kolkata Zoo.
Other threats were very specific to the region, such as
the red algae covering the wetlands of KeoladeoGhana. This is perceived to be a
threat since the algae forms a thick layer over the surface of the water,
especially around the banks and completely obscures visibility. For the Fishing Cat that most likely
requires clear visibility around banks of water bodies to catch fish, this
could be a severe problem.
No conflict or killing was reported by villagers of the Terai belt of Dudhwa and Katarniaghat, despite several reports of Fishing Cats
occurring in sugarcane fields around the Tiger Reserve.
In contrast 27 Fishing Cats were killed due to various
human related causes (Table 3) in West Bengal, 26 from Howrah District and one
from Hooghly. The most common cause
of death was from poisoning.
Discussion
Presence
and persistence: Despite surveying widely and specifically at
sites where the probability of Fishing Cat occurrence would be high, only 19
Fishing Cat scats were obtained (Table 1). The survey period was short and very widespread and hence intensive
sampling in each location was not possible. That is perhaps the reason why Fishing
Cat scats were not found in Corbett National Park. However, their
presence in that region is corroborated by a camera trap picture taken, very
recently, by the Wildlife Institute of India (Dehradun) team (Abishek Harihar pers. comm. 25
March 2012).
There are also technical reasons for low success such as
some scats having very low amounts of predator DNA. This is particularly relevant to scats
collected from within mangrove forests that have been exposed to the tide. This was perhaps the case with some
scats collected in the Coringa mangroves that failed
to produce results (Table 1). Nevertheless, the survey served as an overview since it established
persistence of the species in areas known to be within the broad historical
distribution range of the Fishing Cat.
In some cases the survey established presence in areas
that were unofficially known to have Fishing Cats but were not reported or
documented in detail anywhere e.g. in the villages of Howrah and Hooghly
districts of West Bengal. Hence the
survey also helped compile information that is not available easily in
published literature. This is in
some ways reassuring for any conservation program since it indicates that
Fishing Cat distribution is not as patchy as earlier believed. The presence of the species in agricultural
landscapes bears great potential for maintaining continuity of populations
across their range in India. This
is however, somewhat speculative since information from Assam and parts of
Andhra Pradesh and Odisha are missing for estimating
real physical connectivity in habitat. However, a phylogeographic study with adequate
samples from different regions of India could reveal how isolated Fishing Cat
populations are currently and also have been throughout the Holoand Pleistocene.
Assessment
of threats
General
threats: Rapidly changing land regimes and policies that do not
include ecological aspects seem to be a general threat for this species across
regions within the country. These
land use changes vary among states and these are outlined below along with
other threats.
West
Bengal: The population in West Bengal in human dominated
landscapes, outside protected areas seems to be under the most severe threat
from multiple causes. Land policies
that do not consider ecological and conservation aspects are a major issue
especially in and around Kolkata and suburbs whichinclude the districts of North and South 24 Paraganas,
Hooghly, Howrah and Nadia. South Kolkata which is now heavily developed, is part of South 24 Paraganas (which also includes the Sundarbans,
the largest patch of contiguous mangrove forests in the world) and still has
remnants of wetlands and mangroves (e.g. around the International
Airport). The capture of a pair of
Fishing Cats around the airport a couple of years ago (Kolkata Zoo Director
pers. comm. 08 December 2010), indicates that the species still persists there
but is perhaps under severe threat from rampant unplanned urbanisation. Sunquist &Sunquist (2002) report four Fishing Cats being killed
near Kolkata in the late 1980s. They also mention that a century ago the
species was abundant in this region but are very rare since the past few
decades. Although urbanisation cannot be prevented, planning the spread of
cities by incorporating ecological aspects through dialogue among scientists,
policy makers and the administration would be a step forward.
In the Sundarbans, locals on Sagar Island talked about not seeing the Fishing Cat
anymore and admitted to have exterminated the species themselves due to conflict
(poultry and livestock depredation). Similarly, the records of 27 killings in a year, in just the Howrah and
Hooghly districts of West Bengal, are alarming since these are only a few that
were encountered and many have very likely gone unnoticed and unreported.
Though villagers state that the Fishing Cat causes losses
to them due to livestock and poultry depredation and also to fishing nets and
fish stock, often the mere sighting of the cat induces killing due to the cat’s
habit of preying on livestock and poultry. These losses have never been assessed or quantified economically.
However, within the Sundarbanson the whole, Fishing Cats seem to be doing well and seem to be relatively
common as they are also often trapped in cages set up by the forest department
in cases of livestock depredation (Rishi Sharma pers. comm. November 2010; West
Bengal Forest Department pers. comm. 26 December 2010).
Mushrooming brick industries are another threat in West
Bengal and many wetland areas that were strongholds for Fishing Cats are now
being destroyed to accommodate these industries.
Community level conservation efforts in privately owned
lands are an option and this is being taken up through awareness campaigns
through local NGO’s and interested individuals. However, this needs to be systematised for continual funding and monitoring for long
term gains.
Andhra
Pradesh: Introduction of aquaculture and prawn farms around the Coringa mangroves in Andhra Pradesh (Ravishankaret al. 2004) is a potential threat to the Fishing Cat in the future. Such large
aquaculture projects are bound to attract species that feed on fish and
prawns. Scats of Fishing Cat were
found adjoining a huge commercial tiger-prawn farm just outside the mangrove
sanctuary and very likely Fishing Cats feed on tiger-prawns there. So far there are no reports retaliation,
but this could also be due to ignorance of the presence of the cat that feeds
in these commercial aquaculture farms. It is not known if this will be seen as conflict in the future as
observed in villages in the Howrah District of West Bengal. One way to address this is to start sensitising locals and policy makers to the presence and
importance of Fishing Cats and the law protecting it, in the region and enforce strict implementation of the law if killings are
reported. Such regions need to be
regularly monitored by the forest department to establish the presence of the
cat so that any retaliatory killing does not go unnoticed.
Rajasthan: In the
case of the Keoladeo Ghana population, monitoring and
surveys are required to investigate the possibility of individuals having
dispersed to the satellite wetlands around. Intensive surveys in and around Keoladeo Ghana through sampling scats and using molecular
tools would provide valuable information on their presence, distribution and
abundance. After communicating to
the forest department on the possible adverse impact of the red algae, the
management immediately started clearing off the algae in some places.
Conclusion
Although the Fishing Cat was recorded in all regions
where it occurred earlier, its situation in a large part of its range is
precarious. Especially the population in West Bengal face numerous threats, which is
particularly concerning as this state, especially the southern districts, may
be a stronghold for this species. Here a conservation programme should monitor
these populations and assess the impact of the observed threats. Economic losses to locals have to be
quantified to gauge their impact to the local economy. If the losses are substantial urgent
measures need to be taken to resolve it in order to minimiseconflict. These can be in the form
of insurance/compensatory schemes and/or changes in the way livestock and
poultry are housed (Bhatnagar et al. 2002) and fish
captures and nets should be guarded or fenced. Of particular importance are also
surveys in regions connecting known populations to ensure habitat continuity. Here the satellite wetlands around Keoladeo Ghana in Bharatpur, the
East coast wetlands and mangroves in the states of Odisha(e.g. Mahanadi), Andhra Pradesh (e.g. Krishna, Godavari basins) and Tamil Nadu
(e.g. Pulicat Lake, Pichavaramand Muthupet) are particularly important. The occurrence of the species along the
Western Ghats is not clear and needs investigation (Nowell& Jackson 1996; Sunquist & Sunquist 2002) and there have been no reports of this cat
along the southern edge of the eastern coast of India.
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