The Fishing Cat (Prionailurus viverrinus) is a very interesting Indonesian species of felid that doesn't seem to mind getting wet. Living on the margins of rivers, swamps, and smaller bodies of water, these cats often swim and (as their name implies) are quite fond of freshly-caught fish. Indeed, they've become more adapted to this type of habitat and lifestyle than other cats that are just occasional visitors to the riverbank, developing larger inter-digital webs than other cats to help it get a grip on muddy surfaces (the other branch of the Carnivora, the canids, includes the Bush Dog of the Amazon which also has webbing between its toes). This particular animal was photographed last February at the Philadelphia Zoo, although during my last visit she was moved off display.
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Oh come on, you're telling me that this photo wasn't taken along a quiet tributary leading to the Ganges? ;-)
Fishing cats are a personal favourite of mine. My country's Night Safari exhibits fishing cats in a mock-up of a tropical forest stream, and they do draw the visitors, who spend quite a bit of time watching them wade in the shallows for fish.
Near their enclosure is a glass-fronted one with leopard cats, probably one of the fishing cat's closest relatives, and the difference in build shows just how distinctive the fishing cat is. While the leopard cat is slim, the fishing cat is a hefty, powerfully-built animal, built more like a bulldog than a cat.
Another thing that intrigues me is their discontinuous distribution throughout tropical Asia. For some strange reason, fishing cats are likely entirely absent from Peninsular Malaysia (or if present, at extremely low densities), even though they are found in the rest of mainland Southeast Asia, and in Sumatra and Java. (They're absent from Borneo as well)
Oh, and just something interesting that I noticed when I was at the Night Safari a few months ago; there is a family group of Asian small-clawed otters that is exhibited adjacent to the fishing cat enclosure (in fact, both exhibits share the same artificial 'stream'), and it was very interesting to see the otters mobbing the fishing cats from their enclosure.
Hai; Thanks, as always, for the compliment. This photo is from the only time I've seen a Fishing Cat in captivity, although I hear there's a place in upstate NY that has 17 of them. Thanks for the extra information as well; I would definitely be interested in looking at the social behavior of these cats as they seem to be a little more gregarious than other species (or at least have the capacity).
That's one handsome cat. I'd love to have one as swimming partner... :-) Dogs tend to get frantic (except Terranova may be?) and scratch you with their unretractable claws...
Interesting. Inter-digital webbing is common in semi-aquatics, but not necessarily required, see the Cape clawless otter which has very prehensile non-webbed "hands", and primates Nasalis (probosis monkey) and crab eating macaque also don't have substantial hand webbing.
I wonder if the fishing cat conflicts with the clouded leopard. I wouldn't expect social pack behaviour in fishing cats in a natural environment, maybe pairs with 1-2 young.
(I added a response to Johannes comment about saber tooth cats in the spook thread.)
Thanks for this beautiful picture. i'm especially fond of small cats. Of course, everybody loves lions and tigers. But, come on : can you really say that they're more beautiful than margays, Geoffroy cats, desert cats and the like ?