Rare photos capture fishing cat preying on monitor lizard
In the mangrove swamps of the Sundarbans, a small predator has revealed unexpected prowess.
In July, naturalist Soumyadip Santra photographed a fishing cat (Prionailurus viverrinus) leaping onto an adult monitor lizard and dragging it away. The sequence, corroborated by another photographer on the scene, is thought to be the first evidence of such a kill, reports Nabarun Guha for Mongabay India.
Fishing cats, the state animal of West Bengal and listed as vulnerable on the IUCN Red List, usually dine on fish, rodents, snakes, and small birds. A monitor lizard, nearly the same size as the cat itself, is far from routine prey.
“This is a great find,” said biologist Tiasa Adhya, who has studied the species extensively. She likened the event to jaguars in South America catching caimans, a demonstration of wetland predators turning their skill against formidable rivals.
Other ecologists called the encounter “a very uncommon incident.” Food scarcity in the Sundarbans and competition with otters may have pushed the cat into riskier hunting.
Opportunism is no anomaly in nature, but this rare documentation underscores how much remains to be discovered about animal behavior.