Many cats despise mud and water, but not so the fishing cat. This enigmatic medium-sized cat species roams South and Southeast Asia and is uniquely adapted to life in wetlands — so much so that its call resembles the quack of a duck. Little known and underresearched, it faces an uphill battle against multiple threats, including loss of its wetland habitat to humanity’s incursions, and escalating climate change, as extreme drought and rising coastal waters disrupt aquatic ecosystems. Though in peril, the fishing cat (Prionailurus viverrinus) has many champions fighting for its survival. A pioneer of that effort is Tiasa Adhya, co-founder of the Fishing Cat Project in India, the world’s first and longest-running conservation and research program dedicated to the species. Her journey to researching and becoming a voice for P. viverrinus began on a tiger survey in the Sundarbans of West Bengal, India, in 2010. “There was this miniature pugmark — [a footprint] like that of a small tiger — that the forest department ranger pointed me to,” she recounts. “They said it belonged to the fishing cat. It was the state animal of West Bengal. But I had no idea what a fishing cat was, and that was true for most people [living] in my state.” Adhya went on to co-found the Fishing Cat Project that same year. Over time, the group’s relentless awareness-raising efforts, community outreach, and government lobbying boosted the fishing cat’s visibility, she says. In 2022, she received the Future for Nature Award, in…This article was originally published on Mongabay
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