Fish on the platter! Dietary habits of fishing cats (Prionailurus viverrinus) in the Godavari Delta, India

Abstract

The threatened fishing cat (Prionailurus viverrinus) is an elusive and medium-sized cat that is adapted to mangroves, swamps, wetlands and riverine habitats. A close look at the literature indicates that fishing cats are piscivorous; however, this is based on very few studies. Understanding the patterns of resource utilisation by species is crucial for assessing their role in ecosystems and in ensuring their conservation. Therefore, our study presents insights into fishing cat feeding patterns from mangroves of the Godavari delta, Andhra Pradesh, India. We collected 303 putative fishing cat scats and conducted diet analysis using 120 genetically identified scats. Our analysis revealed that fish was the most important prey for fishing cats in the study area (61.6% in frequency of occurrence), followed by crabs (30%) and rodents (28.3%). The prey composition did not vary significantly between the three seasons but there were differences between the survey years. The niche breadth also varied across the three seasons, with lowest niche breadth estimated in summers (0.36) with highest contribution of fish in the diet and highest in winters (0.75) probably due to increased contribution of other prey items along with fish. Our results suggest that long-term conservation and survival of the fishing cats depends on fish populations, which are the main prey of the species and thus recommend the need to protect the fish populations in the Godavari delta and the surrounding riverine habitats. Given the importance of fish to the diet of the fishing cat, the health of waterways throughout their distribution must be one of the focal strategies of conservation action.