Fishing cat

Fishing cat ( Prionailurus viverrinus )

The fishing cat ( Prionailurus viverrinus ) is a wild cat of South Asia, which mainly lives in wetlands. Since 2008, the Fish Cat in the Red List of endangered species by the World Conservation Union IUCN as endangered ( Endangered ) out, because the entire population is estimated as a result of habitat loss is less than at the beginning of the 1990s, at least 50%.

The fishing cat is related to the Bengal cat, but much larger.

Features

The fur of the cat fish is olive gray with darker stripes on the shoulders and neck, which merge on the sides and legs into elongated spots. The belly is white. Chest and throat are provided with bands of dark spots. Her head is long and narrow. You can not fully retract their claws and has less pronounced than the webbed Bengal. With a body weight of 5-16 kg and a head -body length of 57-78 cm, it is about twice as big as a house cat. Their tail is relatively short at 20-30 cm.

Distribution and habitat

The distribution area of fishing cats extends from the Terai region in southern Nepal and northeastern India through Bangladesh to Thailand and Sri Lanka. There is no current evidence from Pakistan, the Malay Peninsula, Sumatra, Laos and Vietnam. On the island of Java, it was rare even in the 1990s, and came only in mangrove forests in the north- west of the island.

They prefer the immediate vicinity of water such as swamps, lakes and slow -flowing rivers, but not rivers and streams with strong currents.

Way of life

Unlike most cats cats fish swim frequently. In their search for prey she cowers not only on the bank and gets a targeted blow the fish out of the water, but wades also frequently looking for crabs and other water creatures around or captured fish diving and swimming in shallow waters, is also looking for it off the water for frogs, crustaceans and aquatic snails. Occasionally they hunt on land and then captured mice, birds and insects, exceptionally even larger mammals up to the size of a lamb.

Inventory and risk

The IUCN estimates the inventory of fish Cat on less than 10,000 adult animals. The stock is also in decline, so the species is classified as endangered ( endangered ).

Conservation

Prionailurus viverrinus is listed in Appendix II of the CITES Convention.