Jungle Cat, Felis chaus, also known as Reed Cat or Swamp Cat is a species of cat found through Middle East, Indian Subcontinent Southern China and South East Asia. The species can adapt to different terrains and due to its increased range it is listed as Least Concern in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.
Jungle Cat is typically diurnal but can be seen hunting through out the day. Their main diet includes small mammals like birds, gerbils, hares and rodents. These solitary cats only interact with others only during mating season. Like other cats, Jungle Cats marks their territories by spraying urine.
I have seen the Jungle Cats quite a few times during my trips to different areas but never managed to get a photo like the above until I visited Velavader in Dec 2017. On 29th of Dec, 2017, during our GIBT 2017 – NI trip, around 5:45 in the evening, while we were birding at Velavador, Gujarat, a Jungle cat appeared in front us. It almost ignored us and walked steadily towards a near by water hole. We approached the cat very cautiously from our vehicle keeping a pretty good distance from it. As it reached the water hole, we were unable to spot it again for almost 10 minutes. Luck was with us. The cat reappeared and started walking though the track ahead of us for another few minutes. We managed to get some decent photographs of it. We do not want to disturb the cat for a long time and we left him to his business after a few minutes of observation.
Just a couple of days back (27th Dec, 2017) at Little Rann of Kutch we were able to see another Jungle Cat around 8:30 in the night. Though I managed a few clicks of it, the above photo is my personal favorite.
It was a species that we never thought to see during our GIBT 2017 – NI trip. For sure it was a sweet surprise.
Great Indian Birding Trip 