A Fishing Cat Too Hurt to Eat Now Wears a Satellite Collar

A male fishing cat that arrived at a rescue center in northeastern Bangladesh unable to feed himself, weighing barely 5 kg, has been released onto a tea estate. He now wears a satellite collar, Mongabay reported.¹²

Roughly 95% of the fishing cat’s range in Bangladesh falls outside protected areas.¹ The collar is meant to show how the cat moves through the tea estate and uses the surrounding wetlands, and how rehabilitated fishing cats adapt to landscapes shaped by people.²³⁴

From 5 kg to 12 kg

The Bangladesh Forest Department rescued the cat in February 2026. It sent him to the Jankichara Wildlife Rescue and Rehabilitation Centre, which is run by the Creative Conservation Alliance (CCA).¹³ His jaw was dislocated, probably from being beaten by people, and he could not eat on his own.¹

“We had very little hope that he would survive.”

That was CCA chief executive Caesar Rahman, speaking to Mongabay.¹ After weeks of tube feeding and veterinary care, the cat recovered and reached 12 kg (26.5 lb).¹ The Dhaka Tribune and The Business Standard call him Alfie.³⁴

A slow return, with a tracker

Before he went free, Alfie spent more than eight weeks in a soft-release enclosure on the Ooterbhag and Indanugger Tea Estate.¹²

He was then fitted with a 200 g satellite collar, which is under 2% of his body weight, and released on the estate. The estate is surrounded by wetlands suited to fishing cats.²⁴ The partners included the Forest Department, the tea estate, Ritsumeikan University, SCOPE Foundation’s Project Fishing Cat and the Fishing Cat Conservation Alliance.²³

Why tea estates

Rahman says at least 135 estates in northeastern Bangladesh could host similar efforts.¹

“It is still early days, but this could become a useful model for conservation in a densely populated region.”

The IUCN says there may be as many as 7,500 fishing cats in the wild.¹ A study that Mongabay covered earlier found that 31% of media reports about fishing cats from 2005 to 2021 were about their deaths. Nearly half of those involved fish and duck farmers killing the cats on sight.¹

An outside view

Muntasir Akash, a zoologist at the University of Dhaka who was not involved in the project, offered a more measured description in Mongabay:¹

“Every life matters. But from a rewilding perspective, it is not rewilding per se. It is a conflict translocation.”

Akash also says time in rehab does little to build the spatial memory a free-ranging cat needs. He still calls the collaring a milestone for studies of how animals use space in Bangladesh.¹

Whether Alfie thrives is not yet known, because the tracking has only just begun. The collar should show where a cat that was once too hurt to eat goes when he is on his own.¹³