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Camera Trap Confirmed Caracal Presence in Kuno National Park

Wild caracal walking across open arid ground
Conservation · Population & status

A camera trap in Kuno National Park in Madhya Pradesh has confirmed the presence of a caracal (Caracal caracal) in a central Indian landscape where recent records of the species are sparse. Kuno National Park announced the record on 5 June 2026 after the animal was photographed during a recent camera-trap survey.

The record is notable because caracals are now extremely rarely documented in central India. The species historically occurred across a much wider part of the subcontinent, but recent Indian records are concentrated mainly in Rajasthan and Gujarat. Kuno lies farther east, in a landscape of dry forest, scrub and extensive grasslands in northern Madhya Pradesh.

Kuno field director Uttam Kumar Sharma later told Mongabay-India that it was the first caracal record during his four years in the park. The forest department began checking older records from Kuno and adjoining areas to determine whether the species had previously been documented there.

Presence does not yet mean a resident population

The photograph confirms that at least one caracal used the park, but park officials and researchers have not treated it as evidence of an established local population. Sharma said continued monitoring is needed before conclusions can be drawn about local presence. Caracal researcher Shekhar Kolipaka similarly explained that a single camera-trap photograph demonstrates presence, not residency or population size; he considered it likely that the animal could be a dispersing male.

The finding adds a new confirmed point to the sparse recent record of caracals in central India. Kuno contains a mosaic of habitats used by the species elsewhere, including grasslands, scrub and open dry forest, and continued camera-trap monitoring may show whether the photographed individual was passing through or whether additional caracals use the wider landscape.

Sources and image credit

  1. Kuno National Park. (2026, June 5). Caracal recorded in Kuno National Park [Instagram post]. Instagram.Primary official announcement that a recent camera-trap survey recorded a caracal in Kuno National Park. The announcement described the record as occurring after many years but did not document an exact multi-decade interval.
  2. Mishra, M. C. (2026, July 1). New camera-trap record confirms caracal presence in Kuno. Mongabay-India.Follow-up reporting with Kuno field director Uttam Kumar Sharma and caracal researcher Shekhar Kolipaka. Sharma said it was the first record during his four years in the park and that older records were being checked; experts stressed that one photograph confirms presence, not a resident population.

Image: Justin Ponder / iNaturalist / Wikimedia Commons — wild caracal in the Kgalagadi region, 12 September 2019. Representative image for this story; not presented as an animal or scene from the reported study or event. · 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

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