Fishing cat

Fishing cats eat mostly fish!

They also catch frogs, birds, crabs, snails and mice. A fishing cat scoops fish out of the water with its paws.

Unlike most small cats, which eat mainly small mammals, the fishing cat eats mainly fish and other water animals. It also catches frogs, birds, crabs, snails, snakes and small mammals.

It hunts in different ways. It may wade through shallow water, scoop fish out with its paws, or dive in after them. The IUCN Cat Specialist Group says fishing cats have even been reported swimming underwater to catch ducks by surprise.

Fish dominate the diet. In Keoladeo National Park, India, droppings showed mostly fish all year, followed by birds, insects and rodents; in Thailand's Khao Sam Roi Yot National Park, fish made up about 42 to 55 percent of the diet in different studies, with rodents, birds, reptiles and crustaceans making up most of the rest (IUCN).

Fishing cats hunt mainly in shallow water, using their hind feet to push along while keeping the front paws free to grab fish, scoop them out or dive after them. They are reported to catch waterfowl by swimming up to them fully submerged. They move along rivers, changing hunting sites about every 15 minutes, and occasionally scavenge (IUCN Cat Specialist Group).

Fishing cats like to live alone.

They hide in thick plants near water. They come out mostly at night, but sometimes in the day too.

Fishing cats live alone and spend most of their time hidden in thick plants near water. People used to think they came out only at night, but camera traps have shown that they are often active in the daytime too.

Each fishing cat has its own home range. Males roam farther than females: in Thailand, females traveled about 0.6 to 1.3 kilometers a day, and males about 1.4 to 2.3 kilometers.

Fishing cats are solitary and spend most of their time in dense cover. Long thought largely nocturnal, they have been recorded active by day on many camera traps since 2011 (IUCN).

Home ranges vary with sex, habitat and season: about 4 to 6 square kilometers for females and 16 to 22 for a male in Nepal's Chitwan National Park; 2.3 to 5.3 square kilometers for females and 8.9 to 12.6 for a male around Khao Sam Roi Yot, Thailand; and, in the urban landscape of Colombo, Sri Lanka, about 3 for females and 32 for males (IUCN Cat Specialist Group). Genetic work in India shows low diversity and strong separation between populations, consistent with patchy, fragmented wetlands.

There are fewer fishing cats than there used to be.

The wet places where they live are disappearing. People are working to save wetlands, and that helps fishing cats.

The fishing cat is Vulnerable. Its biggest problem is that wetlands, marshes and mangroves are being drained or turned into fish farms, rice fields, roads and buildings. Pollution from some fish farms can also get into the fish that the cats eat.

Some fishing cats are killed by people who think they will take their fish or farm animals, and some are hit by cars. Protecting wetlands and teaching people about fishing cats both help.

The IUCN assessed the fishing cat as Vulnerable in May 2024 (published 2025), with a decreasing population estimated at fewer than 8,000 mature individuals; the Southeast Asian population units are thought to hold at most about 200 animals and face a far higher extinction risk. A decline of 30 percent or more is suspected over three generations (2008 to 2023).

The main threat is loss and fragmentation of wetlands, grasslands and mangroves to aquaculture, agriculture and infrastructure, worsened by pollution from aquaculture chemicals and untreated sewage. Retaliatory killing over livestock and fish is most common in the Ganges-Brahmaputra delta and northeastern Bangladesh; roadkills, local consumption of meat and body parts, and capture for the pet trade are also reported (IUCN; IUCN Cat Specialist Group).