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Two Suspected Roadkill Rusty-spotted Cats Provided the First Records From National Chambal Sanctuary

Wild rusty-spotted cat standing in a dry landscape at night in India
Conservation · Threats

A 2026 field note reports the first documented rusty-spotted cats (Prionailurus rubiginosus) from National Chambal Sanctuary and from southern Uttar Pradesh, India. The two animals were recorded opportunistically during fieldwork in 2025 and were found dead after suspected road collisions.

The first animal, a male, was found on 14 March along the Bharthana–Sindaus road between the Yamuna and Chambal rivers. A second animal, a female, was found on 24 April along the same road closer to the Chambal River. The two sites lie in a landscape of ravines, forest patches, farmland and villages.

The records extend the documented occurrence of rusty-spotted cat into the sanctuary and southern Uttar Pradesh. Earlier records from Uttar Pradesh were concentrated farther north in the Terai, while the species was already known from neighbouring parts of Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh. The two carcasses demonstrate presence in the Chambal–Yamuna landscape but do not show how large or established the local population is.

Because both records involved suspected vehicle collisions along the same road corridor, the authors identify road mortality as a conservation concern and call for targeted surveys and roadkill-mitigation measures in the landscape.

Sources and image credit

  1. Nishad, A., Sarma, H., Saha, R., Singh, V. P., Bhatt, M., Rai, A., Qureshi, Q., & Kolipakam, V. (2026). Evidence of Rusty-spotted Cat Prionailurus rubiginosus in National Chambal Sanctuary, Uttar Pradesh, India. Journal of Threatened Taxa, 18(5), 28988–28990. https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.10243.18.5.28988-28990Primary open-access note, CC BY 4.0. Two suspected roadkill incidents were recorded along the Bharthana–Sindaus road in Etawah on 14 March and 24 April 2025. The authors identify them as the first documented rusty-spotted-cat occurrences in National Chambal Sanctuary and southern Uttar Pradesh.

Image: Saurabh Sawant / Wikimedia Commons — wild rusty-spotted cat photographed in India on 8 April 2014; representative live image, not one of the animals from the National Chambal Sanctuary roadkill records · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source

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