In a bid to ensure that inbreeding does not lead to failure of forest department's most ambitious project, captive conservation breeding of rusty-spotted cats – world's smallest cats in the wild, Sanjay Gandhi National Park (SGNP) has decided to go in for DNA profiling of all the six rusty-spotted cats it houses.
"Blood samples have been sent to Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) Hyderabad on Thursday to understand their blood lines and ensure that those related to each other do not breed," informed Field Director, SGNP Vikas Gupta adding it was only SGNP that was running a captive breeding programme in the country since 2013 with help and guidance from Pune-based expert Dr Erach Bharucha.
He added that they have also made a lot of changes to the enclosure of these cats as they are nocturnal and stay in hiding throughout the day so there are arrangements made also camera's has been installed in its enclosure to monitor their activities and also study their behaviour pattern. “All these steps are being taken with help and guidance from Pune based expert Dr Erach Bharucha and a team of consultants that includes Dr Kazveen Umrigar who have been regularly visiting the facility and keeping tab of the development,” Gupta informed adding that the final goal of this conservation programme is to release them in wild again.
“These cats are small and extremely difficult to restrain and hence they were tranquillised and the blood samples were taken and all these cats are microchipped ie a tiny chip bearing a distinct number is inserted in the skin for identification apart from the DNA profiling we will also get a detailed health report as we have asked for all their blood parameters including lipid profiling, kidney functions and others,” shared SGNP Veterinary Officer Dr Sanjiv Pinjarkar. The team working on the project include Dr Manish Pingle, Dr Neha Wakankar and Dr Chandrakant Wakankar.
"We expect DNA profile in a month and once we understand the relationship we will avoid putting the siblings or parent and offspring together during mating period as inbreeding produces weaker offsprings," Pinjarkar added.
According to experts breeding in rusty spotted cat was extremely difficult and all the more in captive as first it has to be understood that which male female pair is comfortable with each other otherwise they fight and even kill each other and apart from all this the cats cannot be disturbed and hence no one is allowed to even go near their enclosure or view them continuously.
Infact it was in 2005 when for the first time two rusty spotted kittens were brought to SGNP after they were found abandoned and were later named Sachin and Anjali and they bred successfully and there were few more abandoned rusty cats brought but it was in 2013 that forest department decided to launch the captive breeding programme and started working on a plan. Also in 2014 a zookeeper from Frankfurt zoo, which is the only zoo in the world that has been practiscing conservation breeding of the rusty spotted cat visited SGNP to guide the team.
The forest of SGNP is also home to rusty spotted cats and it was during a study conducted between December 2014 and April 2015 by Nikit Surve, a researcher from the Wildlife Institute of India that included camera trapping to estimate the leopards population the camera trap managed to capture an image of the elusive rusty spotted cat in wild.
SGNP's Rusty Family
Anjali found from Tungareshwar forest and brought to SGNP in November 2005
Vedika found from Satara forest and brought to SGNP in January 2009
Satyam, Shivam Sundaram born at SGNP in November 2013
Bhagya born at SGNP in July 2013
Spotted rusty cats (Prionailurus rubiginosus)
Tiny in size but they are extremely ferocious. Spotted rusty cats are nocturnal creatures and partly arboreal feeding on mainly rodents and birds. They measure around 14 to 17 inches in length and weigh around 1.5 kg.
Listed as Vulnerable by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
They have grey fur with rusty spots all over the back and the flanks but the underbelly is white with dark spots and are said to be related very closely to leopards.
Gestation period in rusty cats is around 70 days.
The rusty-spotted cat is one of the smallest species of cat in the world.
The main threat to the rusty-spotted cat is that of habitat loss, although trade in furs is present in parts of its range as well.
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