Small Cats of Rajasthan

Abstract

This chapter describes the least thought of but important felines “the small Cats.” Out of the 36 species of cats found worldwide, India is home to 15 species of cats, the highest any country has and hence, is truly the “land of cats.” Despite this, apart from the large cats (lion, tiger, leopard and Snow Leopard), practically nothing is known of the smaller species. In some cases, such as the Fishing Cat and the Rusty-Spotted Cat, to date, even their distributions are not clearly documented. The Rusty-spotted Cat was first recorded from Rajasthan only in the 1990s. This hiked up Rajasthan’s score of cats to seven, including 05 small cats, namely Fishing Cat, Caracal, Jungle Cat, Wild Cat/Indian Desert Cat, and the Rusty-spotted Cat. In this chapter, the author discuses whatever information is available on these cats till date, including distributions at various scales, i.e., global, Indian, and in Rajasthan along with the feeding behavior, habitat choice, the time of activity, competition, reproduction, and taxonomy. The author has also mentioned the various techniques used for the study of cats and the potential for future work on this family. Finally, conservation issues related to small cats in Rajasthan have been looked into and ways to address these issues have been suggested.