The rusty spotted cat has the face of innocence. They are cute little creatures who grow only 41cm in length and weigh less than 1.5 kgs. This makes them the world's smallest cat species. They are found in India and Sri Lanka, they can be easily identified by their slender body and the two white streaks near their eyes.
In general, they hunt small prey like rodents and small birds, but they are voracious hunters and can successfully hunt Cape Hare which are heavier than them. Although they are so small, they have high energy requirements (they need about 250 grams per day) and kill up to fourteen small animals per night. Similar to the big cats they are known to catch their food for later consumption.
The Rusty-Spotted Cat prefers dense vegetation and rocky areas and inhabits deciduous forests as well as scrub and grasslands. An arboreal and nocturnal feline, the Rusty-Spotted Cat, unsurprisingly, preys on small animals such as frogs, rodents, insects, small birds and reptiles. They have also been known to prey on domestic poultry.
Habitat loss and the spread of cultivation are serious problems for wildlife in both India and Sri Lanka. Although there are several records of rusty-spotted cats from cultivated and settled areas, it is not known to what degree cat populations are able to persist in such areas. There have been occasional reports of rusty-spotted cat skins in trade. In some areas, they are hunted for food or as livestock pests. As such they are listed as ‘Near Threatened’ on the IUCN Red List. As of 2010, there were only 56 captive individuals of this species left however, thanks to conservation efforts they were successfully listed into the CITES Appendix which is a transnational treaty to protect animal species. Hunting and trading of the rusty spotted cat has been banned and more strongly enforced.
Write-up by Amrit Srivastava and art by Aayush Goraik Rathaur
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