In India, a fishing cat was caught and transported to the zoo, and the fishing cat scratched the partition of the cage, broke into the cage next door to the leopard, and bit the leopard. The fishing cat was male, weighing 15 kilograms and bitten a leopard more than twice the size of a fishing cat.
Fishing cats, as the name suggests, cats that can go into the water to catch fish. The fishing cat's favorite food is fish, not a hunky leopard, and the leopard is only bitten to vent its anger at being locked in a cage. After all, a cat that is not even afraid of water will still be afraid of a leopard?
Fishing cats look like ocelots, twice as big as domestic cats. Female fishing cats weigh 5 to 7 kg, and male fishing cats weigh 9 to 16 kg. The fishing cat lives in South and Southeast Asia, and its territory is wetlands, swamps, and woods and grasses along rivers. Fishing cats have a wide range of recipes, going into the water to catch fish and going ashore to catch birds. Frogs, lizards, rats and snakes are all rations for fishing cats, occasionally preying on civets and white-tailed deer, as well as human-raised goats and calves. In the area where the fishing cat lives, it is the most powerful presence, only the prey has no natural enemies.
Fishing cats are like contestants in triathlons, with the most comprehensive technology in the feline industry. It runs very fast, reaching a maximum speed of 55 kilometers per hour. Its swimming skills are even better than running, not only swimming fast, but also swimming far. From head to toe, the fishing cat is equipped with the most professional swimming equipment in the feline industry.
Felines, including tiger kittens, can swim. But everyone knows that cats are afraid of water, and when they fall into the water, they will panic and struggle desperately. In fact, the cat is not afraid of water, it is afraid of wetness. After going into the water, I wet my long fluffy and beautiful hair, and the wet hair was attached to my body, sticky and cold and ugly, and the cat who loved warmth hated the cold and wet hair. But the fishing cat is different, it does not feel cold after getting wet, and the fishing cat has a natural warm wetsuit.
The hair of the fishing cat is divided into 2 layers, and the close layer is short hair, which grows densely against the skin. This short coat is insulated and waterproof, and it is worn on the cat, just like you wear a 5mm thick thermal wetsuit. Even diving in the ocean below 10 degrees does not feel cold. On the outside of the waterproof short hair, there is also a layer of long hair, which forms the pattern of the fishing cat, which is the camouflage color of its hiding in the woods.
In addition to wearing a wetsuit, professional swimmers fish cats and bring their own flippers. It is the only cat in the cat science to have fins. Your cat is free to retract its paws, revealing its cute plum-shaped meat pad. But the fishing cat with a layer of fins attached between the toes, because the claw sheath is relatively short, can only retract the half-cut claws, can not completely hide its nails.
In addition, the fishing cat also has a tail that can control the direction like a rudder, which is short and hard compared to the long tail of the domestic cat. The domestic cat's long soft tail is its balancer, which regulates the balance of the body when jumping in the air. The fishing cat's hard tail, which is its rudder, controls the direction of the body when diving and swimming.
Fishing cats with wetsuits, fins and rudders also lack the most critical swimming equipment, which is swimming goggles. The refractive index of light in water is 1.33 times that of air, and if you don't wear swimming goggles, the world you see is a blur. The same is true of the fishing cat, whose sharp gaze on the shore is blurred when it reaches the water. However, the fishing cat does not look at the water by the eyes, it has a sharp beard, and can sense the movement of the fish by virtue of its whiskers.
The fishing cat, which has comprehensive underwater technology, does not soak in the water all day long, and it is stationed on the shore most of the time. The fishing cat is like an old man fishing on a pony, with an extraordinary patience. Biologists saw in India's national parks that a fishing cat had been staying on the shore to observe the water surface, changing places for an average of 15 minutes, waiting from 8 p.m. until 12 p.m. before taking the first shot and rushing down the pond to catch a big fish. In addition to waiting motionlessly, fishing cats will also extend their claws and gently tap the surface of the water, mimicking the ripples formed by the activity of insects on the surface of the water, attracting underwater fish.
Kitten fishing is not unusual, and the most powerful skill of fishing cats is diving. Fishing cats have a broader and stronger chest than other kittens and can hold their breath for a long time. After entering the water, the fishing cat contracts its nasal wing muscles, closes its nostrils, and sneaks in the water. It can lurk like a crocodile underwater and then jump up from the bottom to kill ducks floating on the water.
Fish account for 75% of the diets of fishing cats and 25% of other animals. Relying on mountains to eat mountains, relying on water to draft water, fishing cats that live near the water are accustomed to the behavior of fishing and eating from the water. The fishing cats at smithsonian Zoo will throw beef and quail into the pool to bubble, and then fish out of the water to enjoy its dinner.
Fishing cats that go into the water to catch fish and ducks, go ashore to catch snakes and catch wild boars, and there is no shortage of food for fishing cats, but the number is getting smaller and smaller. The number of wild fishing cats has decreased by more than 30% over the past 15 years, and there are now fewer than 10,000 fishing cats in the world, which are on the vulnerable list. In addition to the reduction of land and water habitats, the biggest reason is because of being hunted by humans. In India, the private killing of fishing cats is repeatedly prohibited, after all, cat meat can be eaten and fur can be sold for money. In addition to illegal killing, fishing cats are also mistaken for other animals by unknown people and killed.
In 2021, there was an incident in Sri Lanka where leopards bit people to death, and during that time, leopard-looking fishing cats became targets. In addition, fishing cats swimming in the river in the middle of the night are easily mistaken for "water monkeys". In India and Bangladesh, otters run to ponds to catch fish to eat. When they see a fishing cat with a long hair and go into the water to catch fish, the fishermen will treat it as an otter and kill it directly.
As the natural life area of fishing cats faded and entered human territory, there were more and more conflicts between fishing cats and humans. Colombo, the capital of Sri Lanka, has a 20-square-kilometer natural wetland where fishing cats live. After the expansion of human activities, fishing cats also entered the city, and dozens of chickens and ducks raised by a resident were all bitten off the throats of fishing cats one night. Another resident bought koi from Japan and fished them out by fishing cats for dinner.
In fact, it is still the old problem of protecting wild animals, if they cannot return their living territory to them, then their conflict with humans will continue.
Well, the secret of the fishing cat first talks about here, there are thousands of cats in the world, this issue tells about a kitten that swims in the water, and in the next issue, we will talk about another kitten.
Follow the French is Bacon and explain the secrets of nature to you, see you in the next issue.
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