Asian Fishing Cat

Asian Fishing Cat photograph copyright clarissa~ and reproduced under creative commons license.

This wild cat interests me mainly from the standpoint of its likeness to a domestic cat in terms of size. In terms of appearance there is a great similarity too but there is no mistaking the wild look of this cat. If you took away the wild look (something that cat breeders are keen to breed into cats such as the Bengal Cat) she would be close to a domestic cat.

The coat of the Asian Fishing Cat is a classic brown spotted tabby. This is the best coat for camouflage and therefore survival. The Scottish Wildcat and American Bobcat are very similar in respect of coat type and size. The Fishing cat is Asia's equivalent of the American Bobcat it could be said. These are small wildcats much the same size, but generally a little larger than domestic cats.

The wild parent of the Bengal cat is also a cat that likes to fish, the Asian Leopard cat. This wildcat lives next to water of course and is a good swimmer. There are a number of domestic cats that like water, which is unusual for domestic cats. The Bengal cat is known to like water. She clearly inherits this from the Asian Leopard Cat. Another wildcat hybrid that likes water is the Chausie. The Chausie is a cross between the Jungle cat and the Abyssinian. The Jungle cat is also called the "Swamp Lynx" so she also likes water and has handed this down to the hybrid domestic cat. Pure domestic cats are much less likely to enjoy water.

It is not surprising that some wild cats live near water as it is a perfect source of water and food. Cats are extremely adaptable and it would seem that the cat's dislike of water has been overcome to the point where she can swim with skill in water in order to improve her chances of survival.

Asian Fishing cat published under Creative Commons
License この写真は，クリエイティブ・コモンズ・ライセンスの下でライセンスされています。

The Asian Fishing Cat is found in Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Sumatra and Java, Indochina and India (see Fishing Cat Range). Its weight and size varies from place to place. In India this cat can weigh 26 lbs (the very top end for domestic cats, say a very large Maine Coon or Savannah cat) and in Indonesia she weighs about 13 lbs which once again is on the large side of average for a domestic cat but there are many domestic cats this weight. They sometimes tap the water with their paw imitating an insect luring a fish to the surface. They are nocturnal and few people get to see them in action. They can swim under water too and catch aquatic birds. These are resourceful animals.

This map is an embedded map from Google My Maps that I made up. It is an open collaboration project so if you are able and willing to refine and improve it please go here: Fishing Cat Range.

It is very easy to see the the connection between the wildcat and domestic cat and how she became domesticated some 9,000 years ago. After all cats are adaptable and it is a short step from catching rodents in the grassland to catching them near and around barns. And once the wildcat discovered that the was a plentiful supply of rodents near barns she stayed and the farmer liked it.

The Asian Fishing cat and the Asian Leopard cat also catch rodents.

Asian Fishing Cat - Update 7th October 2008: This lovely cat has moved from vulnerable to endangered on the IUCN Red List. What does that mean? IUCN stands for International Union for Conservation of Nature. The Red List is the most comprehensive list of the status worldwide of the conservation of the world's animal and plant species. The logos below show the different levels of status.

Endangered is EN on the chart. Endangered (EN), considered to be facing a very high risk of extinction in the wild. This chart is reproduced under published under Wikimedia® creative commons license license = Attribution-ShareAlike License. And the text in italics is published under under GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version - see Wikipedia® licensing.

The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species™ website says that more than 45% of Southeast Asian wetland that is protected are also threatened. How can this be? Either the wetland is protected or it isn't. The wetlands are the habitat of this cat. Perhaps the most commonly encountered threat to wildlife is habitat loss due to human expansion (population and commercial). In the case of the wetlands mentioned above these are drained for agriculture. Other threats include:

pollution
excessive hunting (I presume for prey and/or the Asian Fishing cat perhaps for skins and other body parts).
wood cutting
over fishing - a major threat. Overfishing is a worldwide phenomenon.
clearance of coastal mangroves

Asian Fishing Cat - Update 14th October 2008: There are photographs circulating around the internet (and therefore copyright free in my view) of a small wild cat catching a catfish in a bath. Here is one of the pictures:

Asian Fishing cat.

There been discussion as to whether this cat is an Ocelot or an Asian Fishing cat. The consensus is that the cat is an Asian Fishing cat (see a picture of an Ocelot). The view is also that the cat, the bath and the fish are in Russia in the home (?) of a person who works in a zoo or some such establishment who raised the cat from kittenhood. The cat is therefore domesticated. So things are OK in that sense. When we see an interesting picture like this some of us ask questions and make presumptions sometimes. I am too quick to make presumptions on occassion. We think that someone in the US has acquired a wild cat illegally or something. This is not the case.

The only slight problem I have is the fact that the fish was placed in a bath for a certain death at the hands and mouth of the Asian Fishing cat who are very skilled fishers. OK this is reality etc. But it makes some of us a bit quesy when the pictures are widely distibuted for our entertainment.

Here is an Asian Fishing cat video from Bigcat Rescue: