Order: Carnivora

Family: Felidae

 

Size: up to 85-110 cm in length.

Weight: - up to 7-13.5 kg

 

Key Features:  It is a large, slender wild cat, with long legs and long, close-set, rounded ears which have characteristic small black tufts of hair on the tips. It has a long, slim face with a white muzzle and distinctive white markings above and below the eyes, as well as dark spots in front of the eyes, near the nose. The reddish, sandy-brown or tawny-grey coat of the jungle cat is usually plain, without any spots or patterns. However, the ends of the black guard hairs give this species a somewhat speckled appearance along its back. The jungle cat may also have several stripes on its legs. The throat is pale cream, with occasional dark or light stripes, and the stomach is lighter than the rest of the body. There are a number of narrow black rings near the tip of the tail. The tail of a jungle cat is smaller than that of a domestic cat, measuring about a third of its head and body length.

 

Breeding: Females are sexually mature at the age of 11 months; estrus appears to last from January through to mid-April. In males, spermatogenesis occurs mainly in February and March. Gestation lasts 63–66 days and is remarkably short for an animal of this size. Birth generally takes place between December and June, depending on the local climate, although females can sometimes give birth to two litters in a year. Before birth, the mother prepares a den in an abandoned animal burrow, hollow tree, or reed bed.

 

Diet: primarily feed on eating small rodents such as rats, mice and gerbils; occasionally catch birds, such as pheasants, ducks and sparrows. Other prey species are hunted more opportunistically, including fish, snakes, hares, lizards and amphibians. This species is also known to occasionally scavenge the scraps of lion kills.

 

Habitat: usually found in wetlands and swamps, as well as on flood plains and in dense coastal vegetation at relatively low altitudes.

 

Habits: Unlike many other species of wild cat, the jungle cat is not nocturnal, instead doing much of its hunting during the early morning and late afternoon. Scent marking, such as urine spraying and rubbing scent against objects, is used by the male jungle cat to determine its territory. The male’s home range typically overlaps the range of several females, although the jungle cat is generally a solitary animal, only socialising with other individuals during the breeding season.

 

Conservation Status: Least Concern on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.

 

Distribution in the GoK: reported along the coast of Gulf of Kachchh.

 

 

 

 

 

References:

IUCN Red List. http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/8540/0

 

Macdonald, D. (2001) The New Encyclopedia of Mammals. Oxford University Press, Oxford.

 

Nowell, K. and Jackson, P. (1996) Wild Cats: Status Survey and Conservation Action Plan. IUCN/SSC Cat Specialist Group. IUCN, Gland, Switzerland and Cambridge, UK.

 

Sunquist, M. and Sunquist, F. (2002) Wild Cats of the World. Chicago University Press, Chicago.

 

Hunter, L. and Hinde, G. (2005) Cats of Africa Behaviour, Ecology and Conservation. The Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, Maryland.

 

Photo Courtesy:

L. Shyamal, Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons