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Survey of the Fishing Cat Prionailurus Viverrinus Bennett, 1833 (Carnivora: Felidae) and Some Aspects Impacting Its Conservation in India

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Survey of the Fishing Cat Prionailurus Viverrinus Bennett, 1833 (Carnivora: Felidae) and Some Aspects Impacting Its Conservation in India JoTT SHORT COMMUNI C ATION 4(14): 3355–3361 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 Ramakrishnan 4 1 Salim Ali Centre for Ornithology and Natural History, Annaikatty Post, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu 641108, India 2,3,4 National Centre for Biological Sciences, GKVK Campus, Bellary Road, Bengaluru, Karnataka 560065, India Email: 1 [email protected] (corresponding author), 2 [email protected], 3 [email protected], 4 [email protected] The Fishing Cat Prionailurus viverrinus is one of the Abstract: The Fishing Cat Prionailurus viverrinus is a medium sized cat that is widely but patchily distributed across Asia and 15 felids that inhabit India (Nowell & Jackson 1996). strongly associated with wetlands. It is among the 15 felid Like the other small cats in the country, little is known species that inhabit India and like other smaller cat species it is very poorly understood. Apart from a few recent surveys in about its ecology and conservation status. Existing specific locations, no concerted effort has been made to assess knowledge on distribution and behaviour is based on its current distribution and threats to its persistence within India. observations mainly done many decades ago (Pocock In this study we collected scats from natural habitats, through six states including five protected areas throughout India and 1939; Nowell & Jackson 1996; Sunquist & Sunquist performed informal interviews with locals to get a better overview 2002), with only a few serious systematic efforts into 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 Date of publication (online): 26 November 2012 reported in recent years that fishing cats are possibly extinct. Date of publication (print): 26 November 2012 ISSN 0974-7907 (online) | 0974-7893 (print) Most populations face imminent threats with the worst being in the Howrah District of West Bengal where 27 dead individuals Editor: Andreas Wilting were traced during the study period of only one year. The major threats across populations include ecologically unbalanced land Manuscript details: policies and land uses, direct persecution due to human-Fishing Ms # o3199 Cat conflicts as well as ritual hunts. To address these threats we Received 13 May 2012 recommend a stronger dialogue among scientists, policy makers, Final received 21 September 2012 Finally accepted 29 October 2012 administrators, locals and other stake holders such as commercial fish and prawn cultivators. Further awareness campaigns for Citation: Mukherjee, S., T. Adhya, P. Thatte & U. Ramakrishnan (2012). stakeholders, and surveys for monitoring fishing cat populations, Survey of the Fishing Cat Prionailurus viverrinus Bennett, 1833 (Carnivora: studying their ecology and estimating economic losses to local Felidae) and some aspects impacting its conservation in India. Journal of people due to the Fishing Cat predation on livestock and poultry, Threatened Taxa 4(14): 3355–3361. is needed in order to design effective conservation strategies. Copyright: © Shomita Mukherjee, Tiasa Adhya, Prachi Thatte & Uma Ramakrishnan 2012. Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. Keywords: Distribution, Felidae, Fishing Cat, India, molecular JoTT allows unrestricted use of this article in any medium for non-profit tools, survey, threats. 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 determining their current distribution or status within India, for funds to complete this study. We thank the forest departments of the country (Kumara & Singh 2004; Kolipaka 2006; Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal for permits for issuing permits and extending valuable help and hospitality Datta et al. 2008). The Fishing Cat is included in the during the survey. We thank the Director SACON and all staff, students and faculty for assistance and encouragement in letting this run smoothly. Schedule I of the Indian Wildlife (Protection) Act We thank NCBS and laboratory 3 members for collaborating and helping (Anonymous 1972) and listed as Endangered in the 2010 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 assessment of the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species Park, Mr. Joydeep Sarkar for hosting us on our visit to Corbett National Park and Ms. Shika Singh in Katarniaghat Wildlife Sanctuary. Several (Mukherjee et al. 2010a), as throughout its range the individuals and volunteers contributed towards the survey and without Fishing Cat habitat is severely threatened (Mukherjee them this would have been an impossible task. They are Ovee Thorat, Narayan Mondol, Ushneesh Das, Hindol Ahmed, Navya R, Arjan Basu Roy, et al. 2010a). Fishing Cats are wetland specialists and Brikramaditya Roy, Dr. P. Manna, Arjen van’t Hof, Dayani Chakravarty, Aditya Panda, Shekhar Kolipaka, Kalpana. We specially thank Sonia Joseph for early accounts on their distribution in India suggest sequencing work. that they occur around major wetlands and mangroves urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:7EC1D08D-85B7-4A52-BBC4-41BDBE5A1D64 Abbreviations: DNA - Deoxyribonucleic Acid; PCR - Polymerase OPEN ACCESS | FREE DOWNLOAD Chain Reaction; NCBI - National Centre for Bioinformatics. Journal of Threatened Taxa | www.threatenedtaxa.org | November 2012 | 4(14): 3355–3361 3355 Fishing Cat survey S. Mukherjee et al. across the country (Pocock 1939; Nowell & Jackson utilised for sampling since scats exposed to water often 1996). These ecosystems are highly threatened due to do not give good results due to fungal attacks or because competition for resources with humans, such as land, the outermost layer containing intestinal cells is washed water and fish. Several wetlands across India are rapidly off (Mukherjee et al. 2010b). The survey was conducted being converted into agricultural land, fragmented or through the states of Andhra Pradesh (Coringa Wildlife destroyed, to meet the demands of a burgeoning human Sanctuary), Odisha (Mangalajodi), West Bengal population (Prasad et al. 2002). In the 2010 IUCN (Howrah, Hooghly, Sundarbans, Jhargram), Uttar assessment it was believed that the westernmost Fishing Pradesh (Dudhwa National Park, Katarniaghat Wildlife Cat population in India (in Keoladeo Ghana National Sanctuary), Uttarakhand (Corbett Tiger Reserve), Park, Bharatpur, Rajasthan) was already extinct since Rajasthan (Keoladeo Ghana National Park) (Fig. 1). there were no reports for a couple of years (Mukherjee et Within each locality sampled, scats were collected al. 2010a; Bholu Abrar Khan pers. comm. 07 February from areas where the probability of locating Fishing 2011). Cat scats was high (areas with large water bodies and The distribution of the Fishing Cat is intriguing since reed beds especially those that had culverts and bridges it is widespread but patchy, from Bharatpur in Rajasthan, close by, since from earlier observations these were along the Himalayan foothills, through eastern India areas marked profusely by Fishing Cats). Since in any into Andhra Pradesh (Pocock 1939; Nowell & Jackson given area several similar sized carnivores coexist, 1996; Sunquist & Sunquist 2002; Kolipaka 2006). all potential carnivore scats were collected. Only a With earlier records of the cat being largely restricted small portion of the scat was collected, dried with a to protected areas (Nowell & Jackson 1996), it was not hair dryer on medium heat and intensity and couriered known if viable populations of this species occurred to the laboratory at the National Centre for Biological outside protected areas. Further, details of threats to Sciences where further analysis was conducted. the species and the current conservation status remain DNA extraction was done using commercially largely unknown. Recent surveys (Kumara & Singh available QIAmp (QIAGEN) stool and tissue kits 2004; Datta et al. 2008), through camera trapping and with minor modifications in incubation periods of the interviews with locals, did not record Fishing Cats, but manufacturer’s protocol (see Mukherjee et al. 2007 it remained unclear if this was a result of the cryptic for details). All extractions were done in a separate lifestyle of the species or if the absence is an indication room, free from PCR products and any source of of its actual status. In this study we mainly focussed contamination. Controls were added to every extraction on the molecular analysis of non-invasively collected batch to monitor contamination. We used the 16s rRNA faecal samples to elucidate the presence of Fishing felid specific primers for species identification. PCR Cats. and sequencing protocols are described in Mukherjee This paper is an overview of the current distribution et al. (2010b). Sequences were aligned with the only and threats for Fishing Cats in India. We focussed on reference sequence from GenBank (accession number: regions known to have Fishing Cat populations, in AF006451.1 GI:2218235) for species identification. order to update information on presence, persistence Assessment
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