#  >  > Living And Legal Affairs In Thailand >  >  > Farming & Gardening In Thailand >  >  > Thailands Zoos and Animals >  >  Thai Fishing Cat

## dirtydog

My girlfriend told me about these years ago, a cat that lives in the woodlands of Chanthaburi and swims and catches fish, got to admit I wasn't sure whether to believe her, but did think it would make a good pet, anyway it seems they are real and look quite smart.






*Science Name :*     Prionailurus viverrinus 
*General Characteristics :*     Its figure is look like domestic cat but its size is bigger. Its face and limb are short. Its tail length is shorter than half of its body length. It has round ears. It is brown-gray in color with black-brown vertical marking line along its flanks. 
*Habitat / Food :*     It is found in Nepal, India, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Thailand, Indochina, Sumatra and Java. In Thailand, it is found in every part near water sources. It eats insects and small animals such as crabs, frogs, small green frogs, birds, rats, and shells. But its most favorite is fishes. 
*Behavior / Mating :*     It stays in shrubs near water. It makes a living near water sources. It catches fishes in shallow water. It can swim and dive.It is mature and ready for mating at the age of 2 years. Gestation period is around 63 days. One litter contains 2 – 3 young. It weans at the age of more than 6 months. It can live up to 20 years. 
Current Status :     It is a protected animal of Thailand under Thai Wildlife Protection Act B.E. 2535. 
*Visiting Location :*     Dusit Zoo, Khao Kheow Open Zoo, Chiang Mai Zoo, Song Khla Zoo

Wild Cats of Thailand

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## sabang

My cat swims too.

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## patsycat

Mine just falls in the bath occasionally.  Causing scratches to my thighs!!

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## aging one

Wife had one during university. They only like their masters, and shit and pee in the toilet. The pictures she have are too much.  She has an old cassette of it hissing and growling at her friends as they tried to get close to it.

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## kmart

I saw a family (Mum w/ 3 cubs) of these crossing the road on my way into work (Rayong) one morning. No one believed me.

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## Davis Knowlton

We had one in our base camp down in Aranyaprathet. Mean little fuckers - hiss and bite if given the slightest opportunity. A Cambodian refugee brought it over the border with him and sold it to one of my drivers for a few Baht. Nasty thing - Thais down there call them fish cats.

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## Ciaphas

Well, well, well. For years my misses has been telling me that a wild cat has been eating our fish and frogs and I just assumed it was a domestic cat gone wild and didn't believe her. Humble pie for me tonight I think.

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## Wayne Kerr

Looks a bit like a bobcat. I ate something in Thailand a few weeks that some one said was kind of a cat that lives mostly up in tress. Wonder if this was it?

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## Davis Knowlton

^They do look very much like bobcats, but I don't believe they live in trees. Mostly in swampy areas near rivers.

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## Cujo



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## genghis61

are these the same as Bengals? Friend has two female Bengals, strict rules on their breeding (NZ) couldn't collect them until they were old enough to have been neutered. They are amazing bird killers and I remember one of the regional councils wanted to ban them for the damage they did to native birdlife. His ones have attacked dogs - not when the dog chases them, the other way around. Definitely not 'cuddly' cats they don't like being held.

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## Takeovers

They are their own race. Their fur is adapted to the water.

Dug was faster than me. I just uploaded a few pics from the same series. I will add part of them.



Look at those paws. You don't want to mess with them.

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## kingwilly

fishing in the bath!  :Smile:

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## dirtydog

Poor bugger needs a bigger bowl  :Smile:

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## HollyGoodhead

so is the huge cat in those pics living in the west?  Wonder if they need a special licence... Guess they can't let it outside either.  What's wrong with having a normal cat anyway...wouldn't want that one getting pissed at me.

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## Davis Knowlton

They aren't that big; maybe 30% larger than a large house cat. But, they are MEAN. I can't imagine having one living in a house with you. They must have raised it since birth, or it would be hauling them off to its bowl.

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## somtamslap

> What's wrong with having a normal cat anyway


 Would you like me to pen a three thousand word essay on the matter?

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## HollyGoodhead

^yes please if it's as hilarious as your other works...  :Smile:

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## bobo746

dont think i would be comfortable getting to sleep at night knowing that thing was ready to stalk me

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## joboss

you would be safe. i am not sure about your wife. It likes fish  :mid:

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## sabaii sabaii

^ ouch

I never got why people wanna keep wild animals as pets, not your wife bobo, the cat

 :Smile:

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## Scandinavian

> Nasty thing - Thais down there call them fish cats.


And they eat mainly cat fish, I guess.

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## Roger Ramjet

Protected Pussy!!!!!  Sure is a pretty cat!.....I wonder if it eats Cane Toads?...... then it would be a really great pet to have in Australia! Aside from eating birds...it would be a very usefull pet to have around...especially to keep the local dogs in line!.....only if you haven't got pet chickens!   I bet they are pushing their luck in the areas where fighting cocks are treated like royalty!

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## bobo746

> I never got why people wanna keep wild animals as pets, not your wife bobo, the cat


ex wife mate she had a bigger meaner pussy than that  :Smile:

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## BosseO

I saw a few kittens for sale at a Bangkok market in 1988.

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## fridgemagnet

I believe little wildlife can eat cane toads, as they're poisonous. Very.
Unless you skinned them first, as that job is not a cats best accomplishment.

Wiki says:


 Many species prey on the cane toad in its native habitat. These include the Broad-snouted Caiman (_Caiman latirostris_), the Banded Cat-eyed Snake (_Leptodeira annulata_), the eel (family: Anguillidae), various species of killifish,[40] the Rock flagtail (_Kuhlia rupestris_), some species of catfish (order: Siluriformes) and some species of ibis (subfamily: Threskiornithinae).[40] Predators outside the cane toad's native range include the Whistling Kite (_Haliastur sphenurus_), the Rakali (_Hydromys chrysogaster_), the Black Rat (_Rattus rattus_) and the Water Monitor (_Varanus salvator_). There have been occasional reports of the Tawny Frogmouth (_Podargus strigoides_) and the Papuan Frogmouth (_Podargus papuensis_)[41] feeding on cane toads. It is likely that an opossum of the _Didelphis_ genus can eat cane toads with impunit

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## fridgemagnet

What area of Thailand are they most commonly found in?

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## dirtydog

^I know they have them in Chanthaburi, no idea where else.

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## BenBenBaa

No need for broken glass on the top of your perimeter wall, just tether one of these bastards in the middle of the yard. Put ponds full of fish just out of reach to keep him angry

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## Davis Knowlton

^^^They're found all over South and Southeast Asia. They are mostly found in lower regions with scrub brush, marshes, rivers and plenty of water - also in coastal areas.

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## fridgemagnet

Thanks for that location info. I would really like to see wild fisher cats.

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## Davis Knowlton

^The one we used to have in our base camp in Aranyaprathet was picked up in Cambodia, and brought across the border by refugees, who sold it to one of my guys. I have no idea why he bought it. It just sat in a big cage and hissed at people. I finally got tired of it and had the guys take it out to the edge of the jungle and cut it loose. It was a mean bastard; big teeth and claws, and an attitude like my first wife.

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## Takeovers

> It just sat in a big cage and hissed at people.


If I were a cat and put in a small cage I would be grumpy too and hiss at everybody.

Yes you wrote big cage but I doubt it was big to the cat.

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## Davis Knowlton

^Precisely why I sent it on its way.

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## fridgemagnet

I don't think you can really tame a wild adult cat. Kittens, maybe. From what I have read of Scottish wild cats, even kittens are not certain to end up very tame, tho I guess it's got a lot to do with the person who keeps it(them).
Servals are supposed to make good pets, but they're not from around here.

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## Mid

*Thailand’s Shrimp Farms Threaten Rare ‘Fishing Cats’*
DAN HARRIS and JAKE WHITMAN
Apr 24, 2012


Credit: AFP/Getty Images

 Normally, cats avoid water like the plague, but Thailand’s “fishing  cats,” with their partially webbed feet and pointed heads evolved for  diving, are built for hunting in the mangrove swamps and streams.

 But this rare breed’s entire future could depend on the decisions  made in, of all places, the frozen food section of the supermarket.

 Biologist Namfon Cutter, who has researched these fiercely private  animals for eight years, said she has only once seen one in the wild  with her own eyes.

 “In a way, that kind of makes it even more exciting, because you want to give them some respect,” Cutter said.

 Cutter and her team of researchers head out in the jungle to monitor  the fishing cats through camera feeds and radio collars. When they find  tracks, they set up a camera and put out a trap baited with a piece of  chicken. Cutter is now tracking and studying dozens of these fishing  cats through camera feeds and radio collars.

 Fishing cats only live in South and Southeast Asia and there are only  several thousand of them left in the wild. One of the big culprits in  their potential extinction is shrimp farms.

 Shrimp farmers dig big holes and raise hundreds of thousands of shrimp, which are then sorted, put on ice and shipped out.

 The farms threaten fishing cats in two ways, Cutter said. The first  is that the cats are losing their natural habitat to metastasizing  shrimp farms, and are sometimes driven to kill chickens belonging to  local villagers. Then those villagers turn around and kill the cats.

 Sometimes the animals Cutter and her team have been tracking for months simply disappear, she said.

 “It’s very, very sad,” Cutter said. “You become attached to them and then when you lose them it’s very sad.”

 Sad, and all too common. The solution, Cutter said, may rest right  here in the United States. Many of the shipments from shrimp farms are  bound for Iowa, New York, California, all over the country, and one way  to help save the fishing cats, Cutter said, is to not buy any packages  of frozen shrimp labeled “from Thailand.”

 Cutter and the other fishing cat conservationists said they aren’t  trying to shut down the shrimp farms, but just to get them to operate  more sustainably and carefully. But what would really help, she said,  would be a little pressure from us.

abcnews.go.com

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## alwarner

hahahaha

These have had me chuckling especially the one of it licking the other cat.

The black and white moggy is shitting a brick.

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## dirtydog

Ok, I got my own photos of a Thai Fishing Cat, he was sleeping though.



Nice looking beast.

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