GUWAHATI: A team comprising officials from the Assam Forest Department and conservationists from Aaranyak, alongside experts from various parts of India, has reconfirmed the presence of the Asiatic golden cat (Catopuma temminckii) in Assam's Manas National Park.
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While the existence of the species was first sighted in the area in 2007, an extensive systematic camera trapping effort conducted over eight years—totalling 39,700 trap-days—between 2011 and 2018 failed to yield any records.
“Nevertheless, two photographic captures of the species were made in December 2019 and January 2021, following the camera trapping efforts of Assam Forest Department, Aaranyak and Panthera reconfirming its presence in the park following the end of the ethnopolitical conflict in Manas National Park.” stated M. Firoz Ahmed, a lead author of the recent study.
The findings of this research were published in the summer 2024 edition of CATNews, a journal of the IUCN SSC Cat Specialist Group, part of the Species Survival Commission of the IUCN.
Firoz Ahmed, alongside Senior Conservation Biologist Dipankar Lahkar and other contributors—including Amal Chandra Sarmah, Ramie H. Begum, Aprajita Singh, Nibir Medhi, Nitul Kalita, Sunit Kumar Das, and Abishek Harihar—played pivotal roles in this research.
The Asiatic golden cat, a medium-sized felid is distributed across the northeastern Indian subcontinent, Southeast Asia, and southern China. Listed as Near Threatened on the IUCN Red List, the species enjoys protection under Schedule I of India’s Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972.
This cat inhabits a variety of environments, from dry deciduous and subtropical evergreen forests to tropical rainforests, temperate and sub-alpine forests, thriving at elevations ranging from sea level to 3,738 metres.
Northeast India, it has been recorded in numerous protected areas, including Khangchendzonga Biosphere Reserve in Sikkim, Buxa Tiger Reserve in North Bengal, and several wildlife sanctuaries in Meghalaya, Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, and Bhutan.
