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Jungle cats (Felis chaus) are recovered crossed divers habitats, from grasslands and wetlands to deserts. They’re contiguous crossed Asia, with ample populations successful India and Nepal, among others. The IUCN Red List lists the taxon arsenic being of ‘least concern’.
This has led to a “misconception that they are doing fine”, Kathan Bandyopadhyay, a postdoctoral probe subordinate astatine the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, said.
Jungle cats’ populations are successful information considered to beryllium shrinking. In India, they are protected nether Schedule II of the Indian Wildlife (Protection) Act 1972, which means hunting oregon trading them is illegal.
Despite being the astir wide of India’s tiny cats, jungle cats are understudied and person received small conservation attraction comparative to larger carnivores specified arsenic tigers and leopards.
Conservation baseline
This carnal — with a achromatic muzzle, yellowish irises, ample ears ending successful achromatic tufts, and the sometimes faint striping connected its agelong legs — avoids dense forests and heavily-modified landscapes, preferring agro-pastoral and unfastened habitats, according to a caller survey based connected the largest dataset connected the taxon successful India.
The survey was published successful Scientific Reports, and provides a baseline for aboriginal conservation planning.
“Until now, we didn’t cognize astir their colonisation presumption oregon however they are responding to respective situation and climatic covariates,” Dr. Bandyopadhyay, who undertook this probe arsenic a PhD pupil astatine the University of Wyoming, said.
The squad recovered quality unit to beryllium the foremost origin influencing wherever jungle cats unrecorded and that portion they tin tolerate mean levels of quality disturbance, they debar densely populated areas.
“Our results item the value of agro-pastoral landscapes successful conserving wildlife beyond protected areas, particularly arsenic urbanisation continues to expand,” Dr. Bandyopadhyay said.
‘An important analysis’
To estimation however galore jungle cats were successful India and where, the squad compiled camera-trap records from much than 26,000 locations crossed India. These records were a ‘bycatch’ of tiger surveys and were supplemented with information from erstwhile studies, radio-collared individuals, and the authors’ idiosyncratic observations.
The researchers past included 1 camera-trap grounds each 25 sq. km, 1 radio-collar information constituent from each 5 sq. km, positive each secondary information (from extracurricular protected areas). Then they utilized machine-learning to exemplary suitable habitats utilizing the last dataset of implicit 6,000 records.
The squad combined these results with sex-specific location scope information to estimation a countrywide colonisation of implicit 3 lakh jungle cats, with astatine slightest 1.57 lakh and astatine astir 4.59 lakh individuals.
“It’s an estimate. It gives you a bounds wrong which the feline is apt to be,” Yadvendradev Jhala, elder idiosyncratic astatine the National Centre for Biological Sciences and the study’s co-author and co-supervisor, said.
Across 21 States with suitable habitats, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Odisha were estimated to enactment the largest populations.
The survey is an “important analysis” and has “strengthened the reflection that the jungle feline is tightly associated with unfastened earthy ecosystems, presently nether tremendous menace of conversion to different forms of onshore use, specified arsenic built-up areas and large-scale linear infrastructure similar highways,” Shomita Mukherjee, elder main idiosyncratic astatine the Salim Ali Centre for Ornithology and Natural History, Coimbatore, and a subordinate of the IUCN/SSC Cat Specialists Group, said. Dr. Mukherjee was not a portion of the study.
Ideal landscapes
Per the study,jungle cats similar warm, semi-arid regions that are seasonally dry, with mean rainfall and canopy cover. Their predicted hotspots prevarication successful India’s eastbound alternatively than successful the drier west.
India needs onshore policies that recognise the ecological worth of unfastened ecosystems, Dr. Mukherjee added.
According to her, the uncovering that jungle cats usage cultivation landscapes aligns with erstwhile cognition of the species. In and astir farms, these cats support rodent populations successful check, frankincense ‘protecting’ crops.
However, these landscapes prevarication extracurricular protected areas and harbour respective threats, including fragmented habitats, speeding vehicles connected roads, and poaching, according to the study.
It besides pointed to a imaginable menace from hybridisation with home cats, which could compromise their familial lineage, though Dr. Bandyopadhyay cautioned that the grade of this menace is not known. Dr. Mukherjee, meanwhile, said determination is “no grounds for hybrids, neither successful India nor successful immoderate different scope state of the jungle cat.”
Another cardinal menace is the stray canine population, which “acts arsenic a root of wildlife diseases and kleptoparasitism — that means snatching kills from jungle cats and different carnivores,” Dr. Bandyopadhyay said.
Per the study, stray dogs could stock foraging spaces with different livestock, truthful wherever determination is livestock, determination could beryllium the hazard of these canines arsenic well.
A argumentation for tiny cats
According to Dr. Mukherjee, the study’s strengths prevarication successful its ample spatial sum and illustration size, though she added that jungle cats from Sikkim had been near retired and that the colonisation figures were based connected a “meagre dataset of a fewer radio-collared individuals successful conscionable a mates of locations”.
“Yet this should not beryllium seen arsenic a regulation but an effort to get the champion retired of information presently available,” she added.
Dr. Bandyopadhyay said the records from Sikkim were sporadic and insufficiently viable for the models.
Scientists inactive person a large fig of unknowns, including jungle cats’ denning sites, litter sizes, ranging patterns, densities, and diets.
Small cats are mostly hard to survey due to the fact that they are nocturnal and secretive. Public consciousness is besides low, and fewer organisations person been consenting to money much study.
Going forward, Dr. Jhala said, determination is simply a request to program wildlife passageways alongside infrastructure improvement successful agro-pastoral and unfastened habitats.
“When roads walk done a tiger oregon elephant corridor, determination is simply a argumentation to effort and mitigate those. But erstwhile they walk done agro-pastoral landscapes, we don’t program for it adjacent though these areas enactment affluent biodiversity,” helium said.
Note: This nonfiction was updated connected March 30, 2026, to clarify the interest implicit hybridisation.
Ananya Singh is an autarkic journalist.
