Jungle cat from Borivali

[Sabyasachi Patra]

This was from Borivali National Park, Mumbai. This jungle cat shot in a "pada" or hamlet inside borivali national park in the night using torch light and my Canon C300 camera.

This shot was pulled down from the video. So the quality may not be as great as still shots.

[Debasis Bose]

Lovely sighting. Sighting of Jungle Cats are rarer than tiger and leopard. I always had an impression that jungle cats are camouflaged, brown, greyish brown etc. I will share one of the two sightings of jungle cat in Corbett. Thanks for sharing.

[Saktipada Panigrahi]

Nice image.Tail ending in dark tip with a few black rings above the tip and pointed ear are prominent as in a pure Jungle Cat. However, the image also ignites our mind about the some possibility of its being a hybrid between a true Jungle Cat and a feral domestic Cat because of the location where it has been found.........but I have no answer.
Thanks for sharing.SaktiWild

[Sabyasachi Patra]

This "pada" or hamlet had about 5-6 houses and I was waiting for a leopard. Then we saw this jungle cat in the dump yard where kitchen wastes of the pada are dumped and it appeared to look for any food waste dropped nearby. It was about 10 pm in the night when we discovered that this jungle cat was waiting at a distance and watching us. Finally this jungle cat appeared stealthily. It was wary about our presence.

On first looks it looked like a cat. Remember it was night and I was using a white light which doesn’t have the warm colour temperature as the morning or late evening light. So the colours won't appear brownish.


I had earlier written an article about Jungle Cat and the details about jungle cat can be checked here: http://www.indiawilds.com/diary/species-in-focus-wild-india-jungle-cat/

From the above article I am quoting F. W. Champion and J. C. Daniel regarding the colour, lack of markings on the underside and tail tip markings.
F. W. Champion wrote “in adults there are, in most cases, no markings on the body or limbs, but the tail, which is normally rather short, is nearly always ringed with black near the end and terminates with a black tip”. (Tripwire for a Tiger: Selected Works of F. W. Champion, page 88).

“There is a distinct spinal crest of hairs and a small pencil or tuft of hairs on the ears. The general body-colour is gray to tawny to deep brown. Ear tips may be black. The two stripes on the foreleg are distinctive. Three races have been described from India.” (Indian Wildlife: J. C. Daniel, page 80,81)

In view of the above points, I feel this appears to be an adult specimen.

[Saktipada Panigrahi]

Shri Sabyasachi,
No issue at all when you have observed the Jungle Cat so closely. I also had no such intention.
Kind regards,
SaktiWild

[Sabyasachi Patra]

Dada,
My previous response was to say that it is not a domestic cat.

When we saw it in the night for the first time, the first question Mrudul asked is if it is a Jungle Cat. The first thing I noticed is the pointed ears with tuft of hair, and markings on the tail. The tail was also smaller. I was wondering about the lack of markings on the flanks and underside. According to Mel and Fiona Sunquist (Wild Cats of the World, page 61), "Kittens may be both striped and spotted at birth but lose most of their markings as they reach sexual maturity. Adult cats often retain some of their kitten markings as spots or dark stripes on the forelimbs and hindlimbs and tow or three narrow black rings near the end of the tail. The black-tipped tail looks short compared with that of a domestic cat, measuring only about a third of the animal's head and body length."

Also Shri Krishnan had written "In specimens seen, a dark line running down from the inner lower corner of each eye down to the nose (on either side) was observed. In subadults, there were dark bars on the inner aspects of the upper half of the forelimbs and on the abdomen."

Because of these, I was thinking that this is an adult specimen. However, as you have mentioned proximity to tribal hamlets within the national park often leads to inter breeding and we can't be sure if it is not a hybrid.

[Debasis Bose]

Hi Sabyasachi, You and Saktida are right, because of proximity of tribal hamlets within the national park possibility of inter breeding seems to be high. Today I did some reading and sharing write up about size and appearance about the jungle cats
Quote
"The Jungle cat has long legs and a slender body. Their fur is sandy-brown, reddish or gray, and is unpatterned except for some brown striping on the legs. The ears are tall and rounded and are reddish with small lynx-like tufts on the tips. The tail is short, ringed faintly, and has a black tip".
Unquote
The photograph of the Cat you have posted, has a black tip tail, other features like size of tail, long leg and slender body cannot be made out as it is sitting.
Cheers Debasis

[Sabyasachi Patra]

Hi Debasis,
Here is the video


http://youtu.be/lIdw0Ad9PBk


You can see it walking with all the markings. For the sake of identification I retained even portions where focus was missed. I was shooting at f2.8, so the margin for error was high. This is not my best footage :( and only uploaded for help in identification.
Cheers,
Sabyasachi

[Roopak Gangadharan]

Sir,

I feel this could be a hybrid. I agree with your observations -ears are longer than normal and the tail markings looks similar to that of a jungle cat. the typical specimens here have a uniform grey / brown colour with the white limited to the lips/ mouth and the underparts and not very conspicous, this one seems to show a lot of white in the fur. Also the way it is moving around in the video .seems to have that shy manner of the jungle cat.
TFS
Roopak