Skip to content

Rusty-spotted Cat Photographed for the First Time in Kapilash Wildlife Sanctuary

Rusty-spotted cat resting on a branch in Kapilash Wildlife Sanctuary
Conservation · Population & status

A 2026 note in the Journal of Threatened Taxa reports the first photographic evidence of a rusty-spotted cat (Prionailurus rubiginosus) in Kapilash Wildlife Sanctuary in Odisha, India, where the species had not previously been documented.

During routine wildlife patrol work in 2025, observers encountered a single rusty-spotted cat at night near the southwestern edge of the sanctuary. The animal was resting about two metres above the ground on a forest ebony (Diospyros sylvatica) branch.

The site lay in dry deciduous forest beside a small seasonal stream and only about 100 m from the nearest village. The nearest previously published Odisha record cited by the authors was from Hadgarh Wildlife Sanctuary, roughly 85 km to the northeast, separated by a largely human-dominated agricultural landscape.

Map of rusty-spotted cat records in Odisha
Previous records of rusty-spotted cat in Odisha (green circles) and the new Kapilash record (red star). Figure 1 from Naik et al. (2026), CC BY 4.0.

The authors call for further surveys around Kapilash and wider work on connectivity among rusty-spotted-cat populations in Odisha, together with assessment of forest loss, fire and other human pressures.

Sources and image credit

  1. Naik, A. K., Kar, S. K., Bharati, S., Chakraborty, A., & Das, A. K. (2026). First photographic evidence of the Rusty-spotted Cat Prionailurus rubiginosus (I. Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, 1831) (Mammalia: Carnivora: Felidae) in Kapilash Wildlife Sanctuary, Odisha, India. Journal of Threatened Taxa, 18(2), 28444–28446. https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.10132.18.2.28444-28446

Image: © Ashis Kumar Das & Alok Kumar Naik — rusty-spotted cat photographed in Kapilash Wildlife Sanctuary, Odisha, India, in 2025; Image 1 in Naik et al. (2026); cropped to 16:9. · CC BY 4.0 · Source

About this content: This story was produced with AI assistance within an editorial workflow developed by Wildlife Vagabond. Editorial responsibility remains with Wildlife Vagabond.How AI is used

Population & status

SPECIES IN THIS STORY

Species in this story

Rusty-spotted Cat Prionailurus rubiginosus Explore species

Independent research and conservation news archive

Did you find this information useful?

Wildlife Vagabond is independently built and maintained. Voluntary support helps cover source verification, hosting and continued work on research and conservation news.

Support Wildlife Vagabond

The news archive will remain freely available.