Fishing Cat Conservation Alliance Started a Global Campaign

 Highlights:

♦ The Fishing Cat Conservation Alliance is a team composed of conservationists, researchers and enthusiasts who are committed to realizing a functioning floodplain and coastal ecosystem to ensure the survival of fishing cats. It is twice the size of a domestic cat.

♦ Fishing cats are nocturnal. In addition to fish, cats also prey on frogs, crustaceans, snakes, birds and the oesophagus of large animal carcasses. This species reproduces all year round. They spend most of their lives in dense vegetation near the water and are excellent swimmers.

♦ Fishing cats are distributed in patches in the Eastern Ghats. They abound in estuarine floodplains, tidal mangroves and inland freshwater habitats.

♦ In addition to the Sundarbans in West Bengal and Bangladesh, fishing cats also inhabit the Chillika Lagoon in the mangroves of Odisha, Coringa and Krishna and the surrounding wetlands.

♦ Scientific Name of Fishing cat is Prionailurus viverrinus. IUCN Status of Fishing Cat is Vulnerable. Despite facing multiple threats, in the World Conservation Union (IUCN) Red List species assessment, "fishing cats" have recently been listed as "endangered" as "vulnerable".

♦ The Catching Cat Conservation Alliance has begun to study the biogeographic distribution of cats caught in the unprotected and human-dominated landscape northeast of the Western Ghats in Andhra Pradesh.

♦ In 2012, the West Bengal government officially declared the fishing cat as a national animal, and the Kolkata Zoo has two dedicated large fences.

♦ In Odisha, many NGOs and wildlife protection associations have participated in the research and protection of "fishing cats". The "Fishing Cat Project" launched in 2010 began to raise awareness of West Bengal cats.