Chat pêcheur

The major threat to the Fishing Cat across range countries appears to be the loss and fragmentation of forests, grasslands, wetlands, marshes and mangrove habitats due to the expansion of aquaculture, agriculture, infrastructure and industrialisation (see details in Supplementary Information). The expansion of commercial aquaculture in particular results in the pollution of the entire food chain due to microplastics and the use of chemicals and sewage reaching surrounding areas untreated (Chatterjee et al. 2024, Mitra et al. 2024). In most range countries, land use changes are aggravated by further conflict with humans for resources like space and small livestock. Such conflicts entail killing of Fishing Cats in retaliation for perceived livestock loss. With expanding linear infrastructure, roadkills are a potential major threat, especially in India and Sri Lanka.

Poaching is a potential threat to the Fishing Cat in Cambodia (Thaung et al. 2018). Indiscriminate snaring of mammals in Cambodia and Viet Nam is a major and ongoing threat with a devastating impact on the region’s wildlife (Gray et al. 2021).
Please see Supplementary Information for detailed threats by range country.

The Fishing Cat is listed in Appendix II of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, requiring permits for international trade (Acharjyo 1998). In Pakistan’s Sindh province, the Fishing Cat has been protected since 2020 under the First Schedule of the Sindh Wildlife Protection, Preservation, Conservation and Management Act 2020, rendering possession, hunting and trading of protected species illegal (Umar Farooq 2020). In India, it has been protected since 1972 under the highest protection level Schedule I of the Wildlife (Protection) Act (Acharjyo 1998) and in the Wildlife (Protection) Amendment Act (2022) (Ministry of Law and Justice 2022). In Nepal, it is not listed as protected under the National Parks and Wildlife Conservation Act, 2029 (1973), but hunting wildlife without a license is prohibited (Nepal Law Commission 2018). In Bangladesh, it has been fully protected since 1973 under the Wild Life Preservation Order and since 2012 under the Wildlife (Conservation and Security) Act, 2012 (Sultana et al. 2022). In Myanmar, the Fishing Cat is completely protected under the Conservation of Biodiversity and Protected Areas Law of 2018 (Thu et al. 2024). It is strictly protected in Sri Lanka under the Fauna and Flora Protection (Amendment) Act of 2009 (Parliament of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka 2009). In Thailand, it is protected under the Wildlife Preservation and Protection Act of 2019, which prohibits intentional killing (Phosri et al. 2021). In Cambodia’s Natural Resource and Environmental Code, it is listed as common with minimal penalties for its trade and consumption (Gray et al. 2017).

Sri Lanka was the first nation to legally protect all its mangrove forests in 2015 (Veettil et al. 2023). Mangrove restoration and plantation projects have been implemented in Pakistan (Gilani et al. 2021), India (Kubo et al. 2018, Parida and Kumar 2020, Samanta et al. 2021, Choubey 2024), Bangladesh (Uddin et al. 2022), Sri Lanka (UNCC 2023) and Cambodia (Veettil and Quang 2019). The Fishing Cat also benefits from establishment of wildlife corridors in the Indian Terai and the Central Highlands of Sri Lanka (Jhala et al. 2021, Resplendent Ceylon 2021, WWCT 2024).

Local people have been sensitized to issues pertaining to the conservation and protection of the Fishing Cat in and around several survey areas in Sri Lanka, West Bengal, Odisha and Andhra Pradesh in India, in Nepal, Thailand and Cambodia (Thudugala 2016, Kolipaka et al. 2019, Malla et al. 2019,  Mishra et al. 2021, Phosri et al. 2021, Herranz Muñoz and Vong 2022, Kantimahanti et al. 2022, Adhya et al. 2024). In India, the Fishing Cat has been declared as the State Animal of West Bengal and as the flagship species of Odisha’s Chilika Lagoon; a blueprint designed to safeguard the Fishing Cat across the country provides a coherent scheme for essential district-level conservation actions (Rana et al. 2022). Educational material and outreach strategies need to be developed and implemented in human-dominated landscapes with a high conflict density like West Bengal and Bangladesh (Chakraborty et al. 2022, Sultana et al. 2022).