Very little is known on the status of the Asia’s most common wild cat species – the leopard cat (Prionailurusbengalensis), in India. The much-understudied leopard cats face severe threats from habitat loss and fragmentation, as well as commercial exploitation for their skins, as well as for pet trade. Research scientists from the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS India Program) have for the first time now, estimated population densities of the species in the Western Ghats landscape, paving way for more intensive research on the small felid.
Comparable to domestic cats in size, leopard cats are identified by their characteristic dark stripes lining their head and running till the spine. The body is covered in spots, which like the tiger’s stripes and the leopard’s rosettes, help in individual identification. “There is increasing amount of work done on leopard cats in southeast Asian countries,” said Arjun Srivathsa, Research Associate, and the lead author of the study. “In India however, previous studies on leopard cats have generally been limited to documentation of occasional sightings” he added.
The research titled ‘Estimating population sizes of leopard cats in the Western Ghats using camera surveys’ provides the country’s first large-scale population estimates for the species. Researchers Arjun Srivathsa, Ravishankar Parameshwaran, Sushma Sharma and Dr. Ullas Karanth analysed camera-trap data from over 2075 sq km area covering Bhadra, BiligiriRangaswamy Temple (BRT), Bandipur and Nagarahole Tiger Reserves. The leopard cat photographs used for the analysis were incidental captures in the long-term project on tiger and leopard populations being conducted in collaboration with the Karnataka Forest Department.
Utilizing advanced spatial capture-recapture tecnhiques, the study found that Bhadra had the highest population density with over 10 leopard cats per 100 sq km area, followed by BRT with over four individuals per 100 sq km. The survey yielded sparse data from Bandipur and Nagarahole. The authors assign possibility of ‘competitive exclusion’ due to high tiger and leopard densities in these two areas, as a potential reason. That apart, they reiterate the preference of wet areas by leopard cat species, given that Bhadra and BRT receive more rainfall.
In Bhadra, high leopard cat density areas were mostly restricted to secondary forests and coffee plantations outside park boundaries and village relocated sites within the reserve. This is significant as these areas also tend to have greater populations of rodents; presence of leopard cats could therefore benefit people by keeping a check on rodent populations.
The authors state that the study establishes Western Ghats as a potential stronghold for leopard cat populations, and also call for more extensive assessments across the leopard cat’s distribution range. Coupled with continuous population monitoring, such research will aid in scientific reassessment of the species’ conservation status, which is currently categorized as ‘least concern’ in IUCN Red List, despite limited ecological knowledge. The study was published this week in Journal of Mammalogy.
The study was published this week in Journal of Mammalogy.
