Considered among the world’s most mysterious cats, the marbled cat has been captured on camera for the very first time in Nepal! The rare cat which is slightly larger than a domestic cat with irregular, large and dark-fringed markings and a long bushy tail similar in length to its body was captured by a camera trap in Panchthar district in Eastern Nepal. The camera trap was set up in a forest at an altitude of 2,750m a.s.l (above sea level).
The camera trap images were captured in January 2018 and was part of the study ‘First photographic record of marbled cat in Nepal’ by researchers from Lincoln University, New Zealand and Red Panda Network (RPN) published in the open-access journal Nature Conservation on January 2019. Lead author and RPN’s programme coordinator Sonam Tashi Lama spoke about the discovery by saying “This is an exciting news for wildlife biologists and conservationists in Nepal. Use of camera traps as a wildlife monitoring technique helped us to take the
first picture of this rare cat in Nepal”.
This is super exciting because it suggests that there is much to discover. The stories and mystical animals that we may have heard from elders in the villages – or through passed down stories – may well be true! Well in this case, it is. Amazing!
