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CATnews 69 Spring 2019
29
DIPENDRA ADHIKARI1, PRADEEP RAJ JOSHI2, LAXMAN PRASAD POUDYAL3, PRAKASH SIG-
DEL2, SHASHANK POUDEL1, GYANENDRA BAHADUR SHAH4, JAMES G. SANDERSON5, SHAI-
LENDRA CHAUDHARY4 AND SAGAR DAHAL1,5
Road-kill record of a rusty-
spotted cat in Shuklaphanta
National Park, Nepal
The rusty-spotted cat Prionailurus rubiginosus is the smallest felid in the world and is
found only in Sri Lanka, India and Nepal. The first record of rusty-spotted cat in Nepal
dates back to 2016 from the protected areas of western Terai. Very little is known
about this elusive cat all over its distribution range owing to very few targeted stu-
dies. Here we present the opportunistic road kill record of a rusty-spotted cat near
Arjuni Phanta in Shuklaphanta National Park, Nepal.
from the fur of rusty-spotted cats had al-
ready been recorded for sale in Kathmandu
(Van Gruisen & Sinclair 1992) in the 1990s,
but the claim of Lamichhane et al. (2016)
could still be true because nothing is known
about the origin of the fur.
Rusty-spotted cats inhabit moist and dry
deciduous forests, including montane
habitat, in Sri Lanka. They are mostly re-
corded in the southern part of India but
occasionally also in the north as far as
Kashmir including the Terai Arc landscape
of Nepal and India (Mukherjee et al. 2016,
Lamichhane et al. 2016). Deforestation and
spread of cultivation are considered to be
the major threats to the cat in India and Sri
Lank (Patel 2011). In addition, rusty-spotted
cats have been known to be hunted for the
fur trade, as livestock pests and occasion-
ally for consumption (Van Gruisen & Sin-
clair 1992). In Nepal, they are recorded
only from protected areas and hence the
threats are largely unknown (Lamichhane
et al. 2016). Here we present the record of
a road kill of a rusty-spotted cat near Arju-
ni phanta (phanta = grassland) of Shukla-
phanta National Park.
Dubey Y. 1999. Sighting of rusty-spotted cat in Tado-
ba Andhari Tiger Reserve, Maharashtra. Journal
of the Bombay Natural History Society 96, 310.
Digveerendrasinh 1995. Occurrence of the rus-
ty spotted cat (Felis rubiginosa) in Madhya
Pradesh. Journal of Bombay Natural History
Society 92, 407–408.
Jayaratne C., Perera P. K. P & Dayawansa P. N.
2015. A Preliminary investigation of the beha-
viour of Rusty Spotted Cats in Captivity. Wild-
lanka 3, 1–11.
Kittle A. M. &Watson A. C. 2004. Rusty-spotted
cat in Sri Lanka: observations of an arid zone
population. Cat News 40,17–19.
Lele Y. & Chunekar H. 2013.Sighting of a rusty-
spotted cat in Amboli village, India.
Mukherjee S., Duckworth J. W., Silva A., Appel A.
& Kittle A. 2016. Prionailurus rubiginosus. The
IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2016:
e.T18149A50662471. http://dx.doi.org/10.2305/
IUCN.UK.2016- 1.RLTS.T18149A50662471.en
Mali S. & Srinivasulu C. 2015. Records of Rusty-
spotted Cat from Sri Lankamalleshwara Wild-
life Sanctuary, Andhra Pradesh, India. Cat
News 62, 20–21.
Nayak S. Shah S. & Borah J. 2017. First record of
Rusty-spotted Cat Prionailurus rubiginosus (Mam-
malia: Carnivora: Felidae) from Ramgarh-Vishdhari
Wildlife Sanctuary in semi-arid landscape of Ra-
jasthan, India. Journal of Threatened Taxa 9,
9761–9763.
Nowell K. & Jackson P. 1996. Wild Cats: Status
Survey and Conservation Action Plan. IUCN,
Gland, Switzerland.
Palei H. S. & Debata S. 2017. On the Occurrence
of Rusty-spotted Cat Prionailurus rubiginosus
(I. Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, 1831) (Mammalia:
Carnivora: Felidae) in Odisha, Eastern India.
Proceedings of the Zoological Society. pp. 1–4.
Prater H. S. 2005. The book of Indian animals. Ox-
ford University Press, New Delhi. 384 pp.
Patel K. & Jackson P. 2005. Rusty-spotted Cat in
India: New distribution data. Cat News 42, 27.
Phillips W. W. A. 1984. The mammals of Sri Lan-
ka. 2nd Ed. Wildlife Nature Protection Society,
Colombo.
Sunquist M. & Sunquist F. 2002. Wild Cats of the
World. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.
462 pp.
Tehsin R. 1994. Rusty-spotted Cat sighted near
Udaipur. Journal of the Bombay Natural Histo-
ry Society 91, 136.
1 The Corbett Foundation
2 Department of Wildlife Sciences, Aligarh Mus-
lim University, Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh, India,
202002
*<murtuzatahiri@gmail.com>
3 Maharashtra, Forest Department
Fig. 2. Camera trap photo of the rusty-spotted cat captured in Thitabi, Tokawade Range,
Thane Forest Division.
The rusty-spotted cat is the smallest cat
weighing 1.5 to 1.6 kg for males and 1.1 kg
for females when adult (Philips 1935). At
birth they weigh nearly the same as a
chicken’s egg. Despite of its small size
the cat is known to be an excellent hunter
and feeds on rodents and birds; the cats
are frequently seen after heavy rain when
they come to feed on frogs (Philips 1935).
The cat is found in moist and dry deciduous
forest as well as in scrub and grassland.
Rusty-spotted cats prefer dense vegetation
(Nayak et al. 2017). Previously, the known
distribution of the rusty-spotted cat was re-
stricted to Sri Lanka and India, but recently
Lamichhane et al. (2016) claimed the first
records of the cat’s presence in Nepal from
the protected areas of the western terai,
Shuklaphanta National Park and Bardia
National Park. However, a long coat made
short contribution
CATnews 69 Spring 2019
30
Fig. 1. Location
of the road kill
(rusty-spotted
cat) in Shukla-
phanta National
Park.
Observation
We photographed a carcass of a rusty-
spotted cat after it was hit by a vehicle near
Arjuni Phanta in Shuklaphanta National Park
on 19 March 2018 (Fig. 1, 2). The dead cat
was found on the highway 466 m east of the
nearest Champhapur guard post and 1 km
west of the Arjuni grassland (80°19'8.00" E /
28°55'17.00" N; 208 m). The road kill location
is in the dry sal forest and was discovered in
the early morning by local people who later
informed park officials. The site of the road
kill was in an open meadow surrounded by
sal forest with other associated tree species
and dominated by short grass species like
Cynodon dactylon and Imperata cylindrica.
Water sources include the Syali River in the
east and a constructed waterhole. The near-
est cultivated area to the site of the road kill
is about 1 km to the east.
The head body length of the cat was 63.5 cm
with its tail extending up to 23 cm (Fig. 2). The
height of the cat was 25.4 cm, and the hind
limbs 17.8 cm. At the time of the observation
(06:00 h) the road kill was fresh and the animal
was readily identified from its morphological
characteristics. The coat was brownish-grey
and had rusty spots arranged longitudinally
over the body except on the forehead that had
large and round eyes. The carcass was buried
after identification and measurements.
Discussion
Since a couple of years the information
on rusty-spotted cat has been regularly
published from western lowland Nepal sug-
gesting prime habitat. During a survey in Shu-
klaphanta Wildlife Reserve in 2016, a rusty-
spotted cat was photographed with a camera
trap (B. Bista, pers. comm.). During a camera
trap study for tigers in Shuklaphanta Wildlife
Reserve, Lamichane et al. (2016) recorded 22
photos of rusty-spotted cats during 1,317 ca-
mera trap nights using 85 camera grids. We
can assume that the cats were there for many
years but nobody was interested in searching
for them. Our observation suggests that these
cats are being killed on roads and possibly
in many other ways without being noticed.
Rusty-spotted cat are declining due to habi-
tat loss and spread of cultivation (Mukherjee
et al. 2016) and road kills (Menon 2003). An
additional threat might be hybridisation with
domestic cats (Kittle & Watson 2004). There
are previous reports of these cats being found
dead near roads and human settlements (Du-
bey 1999). We assume that road networks
can be a major threat to the survival of these
cats. Hence, it is important to systematically
collect information on mortalities along roads
leading through protected areas, especially if
the protected areas are habitat islands.
Acknowledgements
We are grateful to the staffs of Shuklaphanta
National Park and the ZSL-Nepal field staffs who
helped us in taking measurements of the carcass
and safely burying it.
References
Dubey Y. 1999. Sighting of Rusty spotted Cat in Tado-
ba Andhari Tiger Reserve, Maharashtra. Journal
of the Bombay Natural History Society 96, 310.
Kittle A. M. & Watson A. C. 2004. Rusty-spotted cat
in Sri Lanka: observations of an arid zone popula-
tion. Cat News 40, 17–19.
Lamichhane B. R., Kadariya R., Subedi N., Dhakal B.
K., Dhakal M., Thapa K. & Acharya K. P. 2016.
Rusty-spotted cat: 12th cat species discovered in
Western Terai of Nepal. Cat News 64, 30–33.
Menon V. 2003. A field Guide to Indian Mammals.
Dorling Kindersley (India) Pvt. Limited. 208 pp.
Patel K. 2011. Preliminary survey of small cats in Eas-
tern Gujarat, India. Cat News 54, 8–11.
Phillips W. W. A. 1935. Manual of the mammals
of Sri Lanka, 2nd rev. edition: Part III. Wildlife
and Nature Protection Society of Sri Lanka,
Columbo (1984).
Mukherjee S., Duckworth J. W., Silva A., Appel A.
& Kittle, A. 2016. Prionailurus rubiginosus. The
IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2016:
e.T18149A50662471. http://dx.doi.org/10.2305/
IUCN.UK.2016-1.RLTS.T18149A50662471.en.
Downloaded on 05 February 2019.
Nayak S. S. Shah & J. Borah 2017. First record of
Rusty-spotted Cat Prionailurus rubiginosus
(Mammalia: Carnivora: Felidae) from Ramgarh-
Vishdhari Wildlife Sanctuary in semi-arid land-
scape of Rajasthan, India. Journal of Threatened
Taxa 9, 9761–9763.
Van Gruisen J. & Sinclair T. 1992. Fur trade in Kath-
mandu: implications for India. TRAFFIC India,
New Delhi.
1 Small Mammals Conservation and Research
Foundation, Nepal
2 Zoological Society of London-Nepal Office
3 Department of National Park and Wildlife Con-
servation, Nepal
4 Shuklaphanta National Park, Nepal
5 Global Wildlife Conservation, USA
*<dipenadk2005@gmail.com>
Fig. 2. Rusty-
spotted cat killed
by a vehicle (Pho-
to P. R. Joshi).
road-kill record of rusty-spotted cat, Shuklaphanta NP
