Fishing Cat (Prionailurus viverrinus)

Common Names: Fishing Cat

Fishing cats are another feline that contradicts the belief that cats don’t like water. They are found in a number of water habitats, including marshy thickets, mangrove swamps, and densely vegetated areas along rivers and streams. Powerful swimmers, they push themselves along with their webbed hind feet. They have been seen wading and swimming in shallow water, hunting for a variety of aquatic prey, including fish, frogs and toads, snails and crustaceans. They will also take small birds and mammals, snakes and domestic stock such as calves and goats.

Larger than a domestic cat, the fishing cat is robustly built with a big, broad head, and a short tail. The short, coarse fur is a grizzled grey in colour, and tinged with brown. There are elongate dark brown spots arranged in longitudinal rows extending over the entire body. There are six to eight dark lines running from the forehead to the neck, and the underparts are whitish and spotted. The head is relatively big and broad, the muzzle somewhat elongated. Their eyes have greenish irises, and the ears are rather short and rounded, with black backsides and prominent white spots in the middle. The legs are short with the forelimbs having two distinct elbow bars. Their claw sheaths are incomplete, which prevents the claws from being fully retracted. The tail is less than half the head body length, is relatively thick, and has a series of incomplete rings with a black tip.

These cats are assumed to be polyestrous year round. They are said to have a characteristic mating call, but the call has not been described. Dens are constructed in dense shrubbery, reeds, hollow trees, in rocky crevices, or in other secluded locations. Kittens have been seen in the wild in April and June, and have been born at the Philadelphia Zoo in March and August.

One to four, usually two, kittens are born after a 63 - 70 day gestation, and weigh around 170 grams at birth. Their eyes are open by 16 days, meat is taken around 53 days, and the kittens are weaned between four and six months. Adult size is attained at eight to nine months, and the young are independent between 12 - 18 months. It is thought that in the wild the adult male may help with the care and supervision of the young, but this is unverified. Captive individuals have lived to 12 years of age.

Wetland destruction is the primary threat facing this species, as over 50% of Asian wetlands are under threat and disappearing. Fishing cats are considered a food item in some areas of their range, and are also persecuted for taking domestic stock. Skins sometimes turn up in Asian markets, though far less frequently than other cats. They are protected over most of their range, with the exceptions of Bhutan, Malaysia and Vietnam. Although they are considered locally common around wetlands, their wild status overall is poorly known, and they have been placed on Appendix II of CITES.

 
Click the logo to visit ARKive, the world's largest digital treasury for images of endangered species, and see more fishing cat photos.