Journal of Threatened
Taxa | www.threatenedtaxa.org | 26 July 2024 | 16(7): 25623–25626
ISSN 0974-7907
(Online) | ISSN 0974-7893 (Print)
https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.9070.16.7.25623-25626
#9070 | Received 04 April 2024 | Final received 02 July 2024 | Finally
accepted 10 July 2024
Small Wild Cats Special Series
Rusty-spotted
Cat Prionailurus rubiginosus
(I. Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, 1831) (Mammalia: Carnivora: Felidae) in the
semi-natural subterranean habitat in Karnataka, India
Shirish Manchi
1, Goldin Quadros 2, Dipika Bajpai 3, Shomita
Mukherjee 4, Suma Haleholi 5,
Mahesh Marennavar
6, Sangmesh Neeralagi
7, Prakash Ganiger 8, Suresh Lamani 9 & Nikhil Kulkarni 10
1,2,4 Sálim
Ali Centre for Ornithology and Natural History, South India Centre of Wildlife
Institute of India, Anaikatty, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu
641108, India.
3,5,6,7,8,9 c/o Deputy Conservator of
Forests, Gadag Division, Binkadkatti,
Gadag, Karnataka 582103, India.
10 Gadag
Zoo, Binkadakatti, Gadag,
Karnataka 582103, India.
1 ediblenest@gmail.com
(corresponding author), 2 goldinq@gmail.com, 3–9 dcfconservatorgadag@gmail.com,
4 shomita.sacon@wii.gov.in, 10
zoorfogadag@gmail.com
Editor: Angie Appel, Wild Cat Network, Germany.
Date of publication: 26 July 2024 (online & print)
Citation: Manchi, S., G. Quadros, D.
Bajpai, S. Mukherjee, S. Haleholi, M. Marennavar, S. Neeralagi, P. Ganiger, S. Lamani & N.
Kulkarni (2024). Rusty-spotted Cat Prionailurus
rubiginosus (I. Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, 1831)
(Mammalia: Carnivora: Felidae) in the semi-natural subterranean habitat in
Karnataka, India. Journal of Threatened Taxa 16(7): 25623–25626. https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.9070.16.7.25623-25626
Copyright: © Manchi et al. 2024. Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
International License. JoTT allows unrestricted use, reproduction, and
distribution of this article in any medium by providing adequate credit to the
author(s) and the source of publication.
Funding: Karnataka Forest Department, Government of Karnataka.
Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests.
Acknowledgements: We are grateful to the Karnataka
Forest Department, Government of Karnataka for providing budgetary and
logistical support to organise visits to the study sites. We extend hearty
appreciation to the director of the Wildlife Institute of India for his encouragement and for permitting a team of SACON scientists to visit the
study sites. The study area map has been prepared by Dhanusha Kawalkar, for which we are grateful for her
efforts and timely support.
On 29 March 2023, we conducted a rapid survey in three
abandoned gold mines in Kappatagudda Wildlife
Sanctuary in Gadag, Karnataka, India (Image 1) to
explore the biological diversity in these artificial subterranean habitats. The
habitat around these mines is characterised by dry
grasslands interspersed with thorn scrub forests (Image 2). Due to the presence
of groundwater, our survey of the mines was limited to the upper strata. While
surveying one of the mines in Jalligeri village of Shirahatti taluka in Gadag
district, we observed pug marks of a small mammal. Approximately 85 m from the
tunnel’s entrance, we found the carcass of a male Rusty-spotted Cat Prionailurus rubiginosus
(Image 3).
The carcass was taken to Gadag
Zoo for further examination (Image 4). The cat measured 68.58 cm in total
length, 35.56 cm in body length, with a 10.16 cm head, 22.86 cm long tail,
22.86 cm in height, and chest girth of 35.56 cm, indicating that it was an
adult. The gut contained a partly digested unidentified bat species (Microchiroptera) (Image 5). The dissection examination of
the carcass revealed exophthalmia of eyeballs, gelatinisation
of subcutaneous fat, paleness and friable nature of kidneys, half-digested
food, severe congestion in the right lobe of the lung, passed off rigour mortis, and initiation of the secondary flaccidity.
We therefore estimated that the time of death was within 48–72 hours prior to
the collection (Sastry 2020). The cause of death could not be determined.
Rusty-spotted Cat predation on bats is evident from at
least one instance in Gujarat (Devkar et al. 2016).
Other studies on Rusty-spotted Cat diet indicate that rodents form its primary
prey (Mukherjee et al. 2016; Bora et al. 2020; Chaudhary et al. 2022; Mukherjee
et al. 2024). This individual possibly visited this cave for hunting, as caves
have a rich presence of bats and rodents (Busch et al. 2000). The Rusty-spotted
Cat is claimed to also use caves and crevices in other parts of India (Patel
2011; Vyas & Upadhyay 2014).
Between
1900 and 1922, horizontal tunnels were dug in Indian forests for gold mining,
but they have been abandoned since mining ceased in the early 1990s. The mines
have varying lengths and structures with several subterranean water patches.
Due to infiltration from rainwater, these tunnels are inaccessible for most
part of the year. Horizontal branching tunnels could only be reached via wet
ground and shallow water ditches. The oligotrophic subterranean habitat harboured several amphibians, sustained mainly by organic
matter from the bats inhabiting the roof and dropping their guano.
Our
observations suggest that the subterranean habitats are possible additional
important areas of use for the Rusty-spotted Cat, especially given the
availability of prey such as bats. The Rusty-spotted Cat possibly contributes
to the food chain of this semi-natural subterranean habitat, both as a top
predator and as an additional energy source to this oligotrophic ecosystem.
Further investigation on this aspect is necessary to uncover the extent of its
contribution to this ecosystem.
Ecologically,
subterranean habitats are still poorly understood (Wynne et al. 2021). They
contain unique and specialised biozones of high
scientific interest and conservation potential (Stone et al. 2005). Abandoned
mines are semi-natural habitats and complex ecosystems (Lenart
et al. 2022).
The
presence of a Rusty-spotted Cat, a Near Threatened (Mukherjee et al. 2016) and
Schedule-I species (Ministry of Law and Justice 2022), in a human-made
subterranean habitat demonstrates the high conservation value of this habitat and
calls for additional research to explore underground ecosystems in the cat’s
range. We urge local, state and national governments and other stakeholders to
safeguard and oversee both human-made and natural underground habitats in order
to maintain and preserve these under-researched crucial habitats for a
multitude of identified and unidentified species that rely on them.
For
images - - click here for full PDF
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