- A caracal has been recorded in a camera trap in Kuno National Park, Madhya Pradesh, the landscape where India’s cheetah reintroduction project is underway.
- The record confirms the species’ presence in Kuno, but experts caution that a single camera-trap image cannot establish a resident population.
- Experts note that more research on the caracal’s distribution, ecology, behaviour, habitat requirements and movement patterns is important to develop conservation strategies.
Deep inside Madhya Pradesh’s Kuno National Park, two camera traps captured a lean wildcat at night. It had long legs, a tawny coat and black ear tufts. This wildcat was a caracal, one of India’s least-seen wild cats.
Notably, this caracal was recorded from the same forest landscape where India’s cheetah reintroduction project is underway.
Kuno National Park’s field director Uttam Kumar Sharma noted that in the four years that he has been in the Park, this was the first record of the cat. The forest department is now going through older records to check if caracals had been recorded earlier in Kuno or adjoining areas.
Sharma noted that this record may indicate the possibility of local presence. However, more monitoring is needed before drawing a conclusion, he added.
Presence, not proof of population
Shekhar Kolipaka, who has studied caracal distribution and suitable habitats in India, and is Senior Landscape Developer at Commonland Foundation said the Kuno record should be interpreted carefully. “A single camera-trap photograph confirms the presence of a caracal, but does not indicate the existence of a resident population,” Kolipaka said in a written response to Mongabay-India.
However, he added that the record, most likely a dispersing male, is still significant. Continued monitoring, he said, will help determine whether more individuals occur in the landscape and whether the photographed animal establishes residency or continues dispersing.
“Like most wild cats, young adults naturally disperse from their birth areas to establish their own territories. Males, in particular, often travel long distances, crossing rivers, agricultural fields, villages, roads and railway lines in search of suitable habitat,” he said.
He said caracals have historically been rare in central India, even though they had a relatively wide distribution across the region. They remain comparatively more abundant in Rajasthan and Gujarat, where suitable scrub, dry deciduous and semi-arid habitats are still available, he added.
Meanwhile, the Madhya Pradesh government has linked the caracal record to wider conservation work in Kuno. Chief Minister Mohan Yadav, in a social media post, said the cheetah project is not limited to the reintroduction of cheetahs, but also aims to protect other wildlife and their natural habitats. He said Kuno is developing as a safe and rich habitat for several rare wild species.
Sharma also placed the caracal record in the context of changes after the cheetah project. He said water availability has increased in Kuno and grasslands have improved after the project. There may be a “simple correlation” between these changes and the caracal record, but more study is needed to understand it.
Caracal’s habitats
The caracal has a broad global distribution extending from Africa through West Asia to central India. Central India represents the easternmost edge of its global range. “Beyond this point, suitable habitats decline, and the species no longer occurs naturally,” Kolipaka noted.
The cat is comparatively more abundant in Rajasthan and Gujarat, where suitable scrub, dry deciduous and semi-arid habitats are still available, he added.
But the Kuno record has raised questions about whether Kuno, Gandhi Sagar, Chambal and parts of Rajasthan may be part of a wider dryland landscape used by caracals.
“Caracals are primarily associated with semi-arid ecosystems, including grasslands, scrublands, ravines and open dry forests. In reality, they use a mosaic of these habitats rather than a single habitat type,” Kolipaka said.
This is relevant for Kuno, where the official description mentions forests of kardhai or dhok trees, khair or black cutch trees, and salai or Indian frankincense trees, along with large meadows. The park’s website says some grasslands in Kuno are bigger than many at Kanha or Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserves.
Kolipaka said earlier research on caracal habitat in Rajasthan and Gujarat, using remote sensing and habitat suitability modelling, has helped identify environmental characteristics associated with suitable caracal habitats in India. Such findings, he said, can help identify priority landscapes for future surveys.
Threats to caracals
The decline of caracals in Central India is likely linked to multiple pressures, including the degradation of grasslands, dry deciduous and semi-arid habitats, expansion of agriculture in suitable caracal areas, increasing numbers of free-ranging dogs and poaching.
“India’s landscapes are undergoing rapid transformation,” Kolipaka said. “Historically, caracals occurred across much of the Deccan Plateau, the Vindhyas, the Aravallis, Kutch in Gujarat, and parts of Central India. Today, much of this habitat has been converted for agriculture, infrastructure and other human uses.”
He also added that caracal habitat in Madhya Pradesh was historically more extensive but is now highly fragmented. This fragmentation is a concern not only for caracals, but also for cheetahs, leopards and tigers.
He said the biggest conservation challenge is the continued loss and degradation of semi-arid ecosystems, savannahs and scrublands. “These habitats are often poorly protected because they are mistakenly classified as ‘wastelands,’ despite their high biodiversity value,” Kolipaka said.
Other threats include loss of connectivity, free-ranging dogs, secondary poisoning from rodenticides, poaching and limited scientific knowledge about the species.
The immediate priority is to improve understanding of the Indian caracal’s distribution, ecology, behaviour, habitat requirements and movement patterns, Kolipaka noted. “Before planning landscape-level conservation or ecological corridors for the species, we need much stronger scientific evidence. The Kuno record is an important first step, but much more research is required,” he said.
“Collaboration among researchers, government agencies and conservation organisations will be essential to secure the future of this remarkable but poorly understood species,” he added.
Banner image: A caracal photographed by a camera trap at night in Kuno National Park, Madhya Pradesh. Image courtesy of Kuno National Park.
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