On the occurrence of the Fishing Cat Prionailurus viverrinus Bennet, 1833 (Carnivora: Felidae) in coastal Kerala, India

Abstract

Acknowledgements: This study emanates from a larger study supported by Panthera Corporation, New York. We thank Director, SACON for facilitating and supporting the work. We thank IISER, Pune for laboratory space and chemicals, the Forests and wildlife Department of Kerala for permits, logistic help and discussions; Mahatma Gandhi University, School of Environmental Sciences, Kottayam and IISER, Trivandrum for accommodation in their guest houses. We thank M. Ravi, our driver during the field survey. Several people we interacted with, provided information on locations of sites, especially Ajay, Ayyapan, Chacko, Charan, Christopher, Prasanth, Rajeevan, Subramany and Toms for providing information and accompanying us to various sites. We also thank Ginson, Subin and Thangappan for information on the wild cats they had seen. We are grateful to Hema for facilitating accommodation at Trivandrum. We thank Mansi, Gouri and many others in the laboratory at IISER, Pune for helping us through stressful troubleshooting as well as making our stay and work enjoyable. We are grateful to Velumani and Prachi who helped enormously with troubleshooting as well as with ordering and suggesting various DNA extraction kits when we needed them urgently. We thank the editor and reviewers of the manuscript for their comments.

Predicted Pleistocene–Holocene range and connectivity declines of the vulnerable fishing cat and insights for current conservation

“…Previous survey efforts appear to support our conclusions, though. In India, for example, fishing cats have been repeatedly detected along the emergent Eastern Coastal Plains but have yet to be verifiably detected on the submergent Western Coastal Plains (Janardhanan et al, 2014). Similarly, camera‐trap surveys targeting coastal wetland habitats in southern Thailand have not yet detected fishing cats on the submergent Andaman Coast but have detected individuals on the emergent Gulf of Thailand coast (Chutipong et al, 2019; A. Kamjing, personal communication; Phosri et al, 2021).…”

On the Edge: Identifying priority areas for conservation of Fishing Cat, a threatened wetland felid, amidst rapidly altering freshwater landscapes

“…For instance, was/is it present in India’s western coast? Though there is anecdotal evidence and speculation of its occurrence there (Jerdon, 1874; Nowell and Jackson, 1996; Sunquist and Sunquist, 2014), recent surveys have failed to detect it (Janardhanan et al, 2014). Its actual distribution in South-east Asia still needs clarity with targeted research being conducted only in Thailand and Cambodia (Cutter, 2015; Thaung et al, 2018; Chutipong et al, 2019).…”

Status, current distribution and threats to the Fishing cat Prionailurus viverrinus (Bennett, 1833) in Nepal

“…The distribution range of P. viverrinus is restricted to Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Nepal (Cutter and Cutter, 2009;Royan, 2010;Duckworth et al, 2010;Mukherjee et al, 2010;2012) but widely dispersed in patchy populations (Macdonald and Loveridge, 2010). Studies have reported India and Sri Lanka to be strongholds of P. viverrinus populations (Janardhanan et al, 2014).…”