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Jungle Cats and Leopard Cats Overlapped Strongly at Night but Differed in Habitat Use in Bardia

Wild juvenile Jungle Cats in Nepal
Research · Ecology

Jungle cats (Felis chaus) and leopard cats (Prionailurus bengalensis) in Bardia National Park, Nepal, were active at very similar times but showed different patterns of habitat use. The study, published on 26 March 2026 in Ecology and Evolution, provides one of the first detailed assessments of the two small cats in and around the park.

The researchers used camera-trap data from Nepal’s 2022 national tiger survey. Bardia National Park and associated forest were divided into 344 grids measuring 2 × 2 km, with cameras operating for a total of 6,307 trap nights. The dataset contained 151 independent detections of jungle cats and 126 of leopard cats. Jungle cats were detected in 49 camera-trap grids and leopard cats in 46.

After accounting for animals that may have been present without being detected, the researchers estimated occupancy at 17% for jungle cats and 19% for leopard cats. The authors note that the relatively low estimates may partly reflect the survey design because the cameras had originally been positioned to maximise detection of tigers rather than small felids.

Jungle cats favoured flatter areas closer to roads

For jungle cats, occurrence was associated with habitat type, terrain ruggedness, tiger activity and distance to roads. Occupancy declined with increasing terrain ruggedness and with increasing distance from roads, while it increased where tiger activity was higher. The authors suggest scavenging on kills made by larger predators as one possible explanation for the positive association with tiger activity.

Leopard cats were more strongly associated with riverine forest and rugged terrain

Leopard cats showed a different pattern. Habitat was the main factor associated with occupancy, with riverine forest showing the strongest positive association, and occupancy also increased with terrain ruggedness. Separately, the probability that a camera detected a leopard cat was higher closer to waterholes. Across the wider landscape, the authors describe jungle cats as more associated with open, riverine and grassland habitats, while leopard cats were more strongly associated with forested and semi-forested areas. They interpret these differences as spatial segregation that may help the two similarly sized predators coexist.

Daily activity overlapped by 90%

Their daily activity, however, was strikingly similar. Both species were mainly nocturnal to crepuscular, with activity rising from late afternoon and peaking at around 20:00. Their estimated daily-activity overlap was about 90%. Just under two-fifths of jungle cat activity and a little over one-third of leopard cat activity occurred during daylight.

The authors conclude that conservation of small cats in Bardia should maintain a mosaic of riverine and sal forests together with functional waterholes. They also recommend monitoring designed specifically for small carnivores and further studies of diet to clarify how jungle cats and leopard cats divide resources while occupying the same landscape.

Sources and image credit

  1. Sharma, J., Gautam, N. P., K. C., R. B., Odden, M., Dhakal, B. K., Tumbahangphe, A., & Subedi, N. (2026). Jungle Cats and Leopard Cats: Distribution, Occupancy Modeling, and Activity Patterns in Bardia National Park, Nepal. Ecology and Evolution, 16(4), e73305. https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.73305Primary peer-reviewed open-access article first published 26 March 2026 under CC BY 4.0. The study analysed 6,307 camera-trap nights across 344 2 × 2 km grids in and around Bardia National Park, with model-averaged occupancy of 0.17 for Jungle Cat and 0.19 for Leopard Cat and high temporal overlap (Δ = 0.90).

Image: Aditya Pal — wild juvenile Jungle Cats photographed at Janakpur, Nepal, 27 January 2020; Wikimedia Commons; representative Nepal image, not individuals from the Bardia study · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source

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