Monday, April 21, 2008

Small Rusy Spotted Cats from India


I found a great article from expressindia.com, here's the gist of it:

World’s smallest, highly threatened kitten are being raised in Borivali Park

Here's some good news for cat lovers. The Sanjay Gandhi National Park (SGNP), Borivali, is hand-raising two rusty spotted cats, the world’s smallest feline — and a rare species — that they rescued from forests a year ago.

SGNP officials now hope to breed the animals in captivity.

Found only in India and Sri Lanka, the rustys are “vulnerable species considered to be facing a high risk of extinction in the wild”...Weighing a maximum weight of 1.5 kg and between 35 and 48 cm body length, they are smaller albeit fiercer than their lesser cousins, the domestic cats.

The wild rustys’ staple diet is insects, reptiles and small birds, but their captive food is mostly chicken.

Their diminutive looks are deceptive: they hiss, spit and bring out their claws when you get close. And they don’t mew.

The female was found in Tungareshwar in November 2005, abandoned by their mother. She was around three weeks old and the chances of saving her looked bleak. A few months later the cub had company. Another male cub was rescued in August 2006 from the Yeoor forest.

Animal keeper Mukesh More worked hard rearing the cats. “He treated them as his children. At nights he’d stay awake to feed them every two hours. For warmth, he placed a 60-watt bulb next to them,” he says.

However, More remembers how Anjali fought death twice. “Once her body temperature dropped from the normal 101.5 degree Fahrenheit to 95 degrees. We had to perch her atop a hot water bag for warmth. Medicines were given with a syringe. But after three weeks, she recovered and began having milk, chicken soup and shredded chicken,” he says.

The doctor has more plans for the animals: “We are waiting for the pair to mate. Considering that they are high risk animals, we’d like to raise their cubs here”. However, these felines aren't for show, yet. Right now efforts are concentrated purely on conservation.


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