Villagers Capture Fishing Cat Mistaking It for a Leopard; Here’s What Followed

Villagers in Uttar Pradesh’s Moradabad were left embarrassed when their supposed capture of a ‘leopard’ turned out to be nothing but a fishing cat. In a video that has gone viral, a feline with stripes on its body akin to a leopard is seen captured in a cage. The villagers were sure that they had caught a leopard until forest officials came and assured them that their catch was not a leopard but a fishing cat.

It all started when the cat entered a chicken farm in the village in the wee hours of the morning. Machhan Singh, a resident of Mahdud Kalmi village of the Kanth police station area, has a chicken farm in the forest of Kamalpuri village of the area. At around 4:30 am, the fishing cat entered the farm and reportedly even attacked one of the hens. Machchan Singh’s son was awakened by the sound of the screeching hen and woke up to see the hen killed. Mistaking the cat for a leopard, he raised an alarm and summoned other villagers. They all mistook the cat for a leopard and captured it and locked it inside a cage.

The villagers then informed the forest department that a stray leopard had ventured into the village and they had caught it. Deputy Ranger Pushpendra Singh of the Forest Department reached the spot with the team. Upon seeing the caged animal, he informed the villagers that it was not a leopard but merely a fishing cat. After this, the team took the cat into its possession. According to Deputy Ranger Pushpendra Singh, the cat has been released in Deer Park, Moradabad.

Fishing cats are medium-sized wild cats native to South and Southeast Asia. It has been classified as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List since 2016. Although much smaller in size than leopards, the distinctive stripes on its body sometimes give them the appearance of a leopard.

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