Rare natural history moment of a fishing cat captured on camera

A fishing cat in the Sundarbans was photographed preying on a monitor lizard, which is not part of its typical diet.
Fishing cats are the state animal of West Bengal and are known to live on a diet of fish, rodents, snakes and small birds.
Ecologists say it is possible that the fishing cat has not been getting food in its usual habitat and altered circumstances may have led to opportunistic hunting.

On a hot July morning, naturalist Soumyadip Santra was on a trip to the Sundarbans, the largest mangrove forest in the world. While the boat he was on tore through the waters he caught a glimpse of a fishing cat, the apex predator of the wetlands, getting ready to take the plunge at a target. As Santra got his camera ready, the fishing cat did something unexpected. It sprang on an adult monitor lizard and dragged the prey towards the bushes. In those few fleeting seconds, Santra clicked multiple pictures on his camera which have now become rare natural history documentation.

Santra, a naturalist working in Gujarat, told Mongabay India that the incident occurred near Pirkhali, a part of Sajnekhali Wildlife Sanctuary which is popular among tourists for wildlife sightings. “Our boat was near Pirkhali-6 where we saw the fishing cat preying on the monitor lizard,” he said, adding, “I am from Bagnan in West Bengal which has a sizable population of fishing cats. As a naturalist, I have studied the ecology and behaviour of fishing cats. But I have never seen them preying on a monitor lizard.”

Wildlife photographer Sudipta Chakraborty also took a picture of the same incident, from a different angle.

Wildlife biologist Tiasa Adhya, known for her extensive work on fishing cats, told Mongabay India, “This is a great find. The fishing cat is known to be a top predator in wetland ecosystems. This emphasises that the monitor lizard, a powerful reptile with a strong tail and nearly the same size as a fishing cat, is among its prey.”

Fishing cats are the state animal of West Bengal and are typically known to live on a diet of fish, rodents, snakes and small birds.

In July, a fishing cat was photographed feeding on a monitor lizard near Pirkhali, a part of Sajnekhali Wildlife Sanctuary which is popular among tourists for wildlife sightings. Image by Soumyadip Santra.

A natural history moment

Adhya said that this might be the first documentation of a fishing cat preying on a monitor lizard. “Some papers say that the diet of fishing cats consists of fish, small rodents, reptiles and birds. Monitor lizards can be considered a large prey for a fishing cat,” she said. Adhya compared the photograph of the first record of a fishing cat hunting a monitor lizard akin to a jaguar hunting a caiman. “Jaguars have a tendency to catch aquatic prey including caiman in Pentanal. So, a fishing cat killing an adult monitor lizard is a similar natural history moment,” she said. Pentanal, world’s largest tropical wetland and flooded grasslands, is located in Brazil, Bolivia and Paraguay, and has a sizable population of jaguar.

Samrat Chakraborty, a West Bengal-based ecologist who has published studies on fishing cats, also told Mongabay India that this is “a very uncommon incident.” He added, “I have studied multiple papers on fishing cats and their diet but monitor lizards never featured on their menu. In fact, in a 1988 paper, there is mention of fishing cats scavenging on carcass of a cow in Rajasthan. But I have never found any mention of monitor lizards.”

“In the Sundarban landscape, food is scarce. Also, in the wetlands, there are other competitors like otters. So, maybe this animal has not been getting food and so it can be called opportunistic hunting. The terrain of Sundarban is muddy and it is not easy to drag a prey quickly there. An adult monitor lizard is a powerful reptile and the fact that the fishing cat defeated it in this carnal battle showed how good hunters, cats can be,” he said.

An aerial view of Sajnekhali Wildlife Sanctuary in the Sundarbans mangroves, where the terrain is muddy and experts say dragging a prey is a challenge, especially a powerful one like an adult monitor lizard. However, food is scarce here and fishing cats may also compete with other predators like otters. Image by Pinakpani via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0). — An aerial view of Sajnekhali Wildlife Sanctuary in the Sundarbans, where the terrain is muddy and experts say dragging a prey can be a challenge, especially a powerful one like an adult monitor lizard. However, food is scarce here and fishing cats may also compete with other predators like otters. Image by Pinakpani via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).

A hungry predator

Wildlife photographer Sudipta Chakraborty, who has been documenting wildlife of India and abroad for the past one and half decades, took a trip to the Sundarbans in July to get a picture of a tigress named Boro Maa along with her cubs. Capturing the image of the fishing cat killing a monitor lizard was a bonus for him.

Speaking to Mongabay India, he said, “I keep coming back to the Sundarbans regularly. Two years back, I did a coffee table book on the Sundarbans on the behest of the forest department, for which I took snaps of 15-20 species. This time I went on an assignment to click the tigress Boro Maa with its cubs. I got the picture of the tigress, but minus the cubs.”

Regarding the fishing cat incident, he said, “Fishing cat mainly catches fish which is its main prey. But somehow, this fishing cat must’ve failed to catch any prey for a couple of days. So, being hungry it took a chance with the monitor lizard. This is not going to happen regularly.”

Santra who agreed to Sudipta’s theory of the cat being hungry, said, “Apart from the fact that the fishing cat preyed on a monitor lizard, another unnatural thing happened. The incident occurred at around 8.30 a.m. This is also very unusual as fishing cats or rather any cats for that matter are nocturnal predators. So, they won’t be seen in the morning unless they were hungry and were desperately looking for a kill. Also, a monitor lizard has very tough scales on its back and it won’t be easy for the fishing cat to tear through and reach its flesh.”

Banner image: A fishing cat in Sajnekhali Wildlife Sanctuary in the Sundarbans preys on a monitor lizard. Image by Soumyadip Santra.