Journal of Threatened
Taxa | www.threatenedtaxa.org | 26 July 2025 | 17(7): 27283–27287
ISSN 0974-7907 (Online) | ISSN 0974-7893 (Print)
https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.9652.17.7.27283-27287
#9652 | Received 28 January 2025 | Final received 10 June 2025 | Finally
accepted 01 July 2025
Small Wild Cats Special Series
First photographic evidence of Marbled Cat Pardofelis
marmorata (Martin, 1836) (Mammalia: Carnivora: Felidae) in Kakoi Reserve Forest, Assam, India
Hiranmoy Chetia
1 ,
Abhijit Konwar 2 & Anshuman Gogoi
3
1 Amity Institute of Forestry and
Wildlife, Amity University, Noida, Uttar Pradesh 201313, India.
2 School of Natural Sciences and
Engineering, National Institute of Advanced Studies, Indian Institute of
Science Campus, Bengaluru, Karnataka 560012, India.
3 Wildlife Institute of India,
Post Box #18, Chandrabani, Dehradun, Uttarakhand
248001, India.
1 hiranmoychetia@gmail.com
(corresponding author), 2 konwar13abhi@gmail.com, 3 anshuwildlife@gmail.com
Editor: Angie Appel, Wild Cat
Network, Germany. Date
of publication: 26 July 2025 (online & print)
Citation: Chetia, H., A. Konwar & A. Gogoi (2025). First photographic evidence of Marbled
Cat Pardofelis marmorata (Martin, 1836)
(Mammalia: Carnivora: Felidae) in Kakoi Reserve
Forest, Assam, India. Journal of
Threatened Taxa 17(7):
27283–27287. https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.9652.17.7.27283-27287
Copyright: © Chetia et al. 2025. Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
International License. JoTT allows unrestricted use,
reproduction, and distribution of this article in any medium by providing
adequate credit to the author(s) and the source of publication.
Funding: This research did not receive any specific funding. However, the camera traps used in the field survey were made available through Abhijit Konwar’s PhD research, supported by the DST INSPIRE Fellowship Programme, Government of India.
Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests.
Acknowledgements: We are thankful to the Divisional Forest Office, Lakhimpur Division for support to carry out the study. We are grateful to Mintu Borah, Harshajyoti Gogoi, Darpon Boruah, Rajshekhar Hazarika, Atikur Rahman, Nayan Moni Das, Hirak Jyoti Konwar, Deepjyoti Deka, Jiten Saura, and Pritom Rongphar for accompanying us during our surveys. We also acknowledge the DST INSPIRE Fellowship Programme, Government of India, for supporting the doctoral research of one of the authors, which enabled the use of camera traps for this study.
Keywords: Camera trap, canopy cover, conservation,
habitat, Lakhimpur Forest Range, population size, semi-evergreen forest,
semi-structured interviews, small wild cat, survey.
The
Marbled Cat Pardofelis marmorata
(Martin, 1836) is distributed in the Indo-Malayan region from the Himalayan
foothills in eastern Nepal (Lama et al. 2019) to southwestern China,
continental southeastern Asia, and the islands of Sumatra and Borneo (Ross et
al. 2016). It is classified as ‘Near Threatened’ on the IUCN Red List and is
listed in CITES Appendix I (Ross et al. 2016). It is predominantly associated
with large moist and mixed deciduous, and evergreen forest tracts that exhibit
a high canopy connectivity, and a forest cover of at least 48.6% (Hendry et al.
2023). In Borneo, it has also been recorded in selectively logged forests
(Mohamed et al. 2009; Wearn et al. 2013; Hearn et al.
2016).
In
India, the Marbled Cat is afforded the highest protection level under Schedule
I of the Wildlife Protection Act (1972) (Ministry of Law and Justice 2022). It
has been recorded in evergreen, semi-evergreen, and bamboo mixed forests in the
eastern Himalayan foothills of northern West Bengal, and of the states of
Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Meghalaya, and Mizoram (Choudhury 1996; Lyngdoh et al. 2011; Sethy et al.
2017; Chatterjee et al. 2019; Joshi et al. 2019; Mukherjee et al. 2019; Bal et
al. 2022). A camera trap record at 2,690 m in Eaglenest
Wildlife Sanctuary represents the upper elevation limit of the Marbled Cat
known in India to date (Mukherjee et al. 2016). Camera trap records of the
Marbled Cat in Assam are limited to lower elevations in Manas
and Nameri Tiger Reserves (Jhala
et al. 2020).
Here,
we present camera trap records of the Marbled Cat in Kakoi
Reserve Forest, Assam. These records provide further evidence for its
occurrence in Assam, highlighting the value of systematic camera trapping in
small and under-surveyed reserve forests.
Study Area
Lakhimpur
District in northeastern Assam shares a common boundary with the Brahmaputra
River and Majuli District in the south, Dhemaji District in the east, and Sonitpur
District in the west. It covers approximately 2,277 km2,
and has nearly 196.5 km2 forested area (Chetia
et al. 2025).
Kakoi Reserve Forest spreads over 49.8 km2 to the
north-west of Lakhimpur District, bordering Arunachal Pradesh to the north
(Figure 1) (Saikia & Saikia
2020). In the south-west, it is bounded by Boginadi
River and in the north-east by Ranganadi River (Chetia et al. 2024). It was declared in 1919 (Saikia & Saikia 2020) and is
under the jurisdiction of the Lakhimpur Forest Range today (Chetia
et al. 2024). In 2017, it had a forest cover of 45.5 km2, equivalent
to 91.4% of the reserve’s total size (Saikia & Saikia 2020).
The
region’s habitat consists of semi-evergreen and moist deciduous forests with
some wetlands. Key tree species include Mesua
ferrea, Bombax ceiba, Shorea
robusta, Dillenia
indica, Kayea
assamica endemic to Lakhimpur, and various bamboo
species (Chetia et al. 2025).
Kakoi Reserve Forest experiences a tropical climate
characterized by substantial rainfall and a short dry period (Chetia et al. 2025). The average annual rainfall is
approximately 3,200 mm (Fick & Hijmans 2017).
Rainfall is generally lower during January–March than during April–July (Chetia et al. 2025). Rainfall occurs on about 125 days
annually, with July being the wettest month (Directorate of Economics and
Statistics Assam 2014). The average annual temperature is 23.8°C, with seasonal
variation from 10°C in winter to 35°C in summer (Buragohain
et al. 2023). Relative humidity ranges 74–89 %, with an average of 81% (Buragohain et al. 2023).
Material
and Methods
As part
of an ongoing biodiversity monitoring project in Kakoi
Reserve Forest, eight passive infrared Browning Strike Force Pro DCL camera
traps were deployed to document small mammalian fauna over a 28-day period from
10 July to 6 August 2024. The camera traps were placed opportunistically along
animal trails and natural paths approximately 30–50 cm above ground level,
depending on the slope, without bait.
Locations
were selected based on indirect signs of animal presence, such as tracks, and
scat. The camera traps were configured for high sensitivity, with a delay of
one second between photographs. They were spaced 1.5–2 km apart and remained
active for 24 hours a day throughout the survey period, totalling
224 camera trap days. Each camera location was geo-referenced using a handheld
Garmin GPS etrex10 GPS device set to WGS 84 geodetic datum.
Semi-structured
interviews were conducted with 18 local people residing near Kakoi Reserve Forest. The respondents are primarily farmers
and herders who frequently use the forest for grazing their livestock, firewood
collection, and other subsistence activities. They were shown a field guide
image of the Marbled Cat displayed in Menon (2014) and asked whether, when, and
where they had sighted a similar animal. This method aimed to assess local
awareness of the species’ presence in the area.
Results
Two
photographs of the Marbled Cat were recorded in two camera trap locations
(Images 1 and 2) on different days within the reserve forest. The first photograph
was taken at 18:34 h on 13 July 2024 at an elevation of 160 m at the
coordinates 27.384° N, 94.091° E. The second image was recorded at 17:47 h on
16 July 2024 at an elevation of 201 m at 27.395° N, 94.094° E. The two
locations were approximately 1.5 km apart, within 200–300 m of a perennial
stream, and about 50–600 m away from the forest edge. The surrounding habitat
at these locations had 60–70 % canopy cover and the dominant tree species were Canarium bengalense,
Mesua ferrea,
and Dillenia indica.
Our
camera traps also recorded the Leopard Cat Prionailurus
bengalensis, Malayan Porcupine Hystrix brachyura, and
Wild Boar Sus scrofa.
All our
interview respondents were aware of the Marbled Cat’s presence in Kakoi Reserve Forest. They identified it as “Godhafutuki” and “Godhafutuki mekuri.” Thirteen respondents said they had never harmed or
killed a Marbled Cat. Five others mentioned that when Marbled Cats came near
their poultry coops, they sometimes used catapults to scare them away, but made
it clear they never intended to kill them. They also emphasized that they
neither eat wild cat meat nor sell any parts of wild animals.
Discussion
Our
records of the Marbled Cat represent the first evidence for its presence in Kakoi Reserve Forest. It is not possible to determine
whether the two photographs show one or different individuals, as the cat in
Image 2 is slightly motion-blurred. The nearest sites where the Marbled Cat was
reported earlier are Talle Valley Wildlife Sanctuary
in Arunachal Pradesh (Selvan et al. 2013) and Subansiri
Reserve Forest of Dhemaji District (Choudhury 1996).
These sites are about 20–30 km away from our study area.
The
forest cover in Kakoi Reserve Forest is well above
the minimum forest cover observed in the southeastern Asian range and preferred
habitat of the Marbled Cat (Hendry et al. 2023). Our records corroborate
findings in Eaglenest Wildlife Sanctuary indicating
that the Marbled Cat is associated with dense forest and a high canopy cover of
around 70% (Mukherjee et al. 2016). Reserve Forests adjacent to our study area
also exhibit high proportions of densely forested areas (Saikia
& Saikia 2020). We therefore think it likely that
the Marbled Cat is present along a broader section of the lower Himalayan
foothills in the Lakhimpur Forest Range and the borderlands with Arunachal
Pradesh.
The
local name “Godhafutuki” for the Marbled Cat is also
a common name for the Clouded Leopard Neofelis
nebulosus in Assamese (Choudhury 2013), which indicates that local people
use one name for similar looking species. Some informants correctly identified
the Clouded Leopard and provided insights into the size difference between the
two species.
Our
respondents indicated that poaching, ritualistic hunting, and retaliatory
killing do not currently pose a significant threat to the Marbled Cat in Kakoi Reserve Forest and surroundings. Tribal hunters in
Assam reportedly have hunted Marbled Cats near Subansiri
and Dhansiri Reserve Forests (Choudhury 1996). In
Arunachal Pradesh, Marbled Cat skins have been recorded with local hunters in
West Kameng District, Dihang-Dibang
Biosphere Reserve, Pakke Tiger Reserve, and Ziro Valley (Mishra et al. 2006; Choudhury 2010; Lyngdoh et al. 2011; Selvan et al. 2013).
In view
of the scarce knowledge about the Marbled Cat in Assam, we highly recommend
further surveys to better understand its distribution, habitat use, and the
threats it faces in this region. Convincing local people to protect rather than
hunt the Marbled Cat is essential for its conservation.
FOR
FIGURE & IMAGES - - CLICK HERE FOR FULL PDF
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