Unique love for wildlife

Two out of the four fishing cat kittens, captured from a vegetable garden on December 6, are still undergoing treatment in Moulvibazar Sadar upazila.

According to Wildlife Management and Nature Conservation Department in Moulvibazar, two out of the four captured kittens, who had been suffering from weakness for lack of food, died in the last two days while the rest two are taking a little food now.

The department officials said four fishing cat kittens were rescued from the vegetable garden of one Arshad Ali in Kamalganj upazila on December 6.

Arshid Ali, a resident of Bhasanigaon village, first saw the kittens searching for food at his vegetable field and informed the local administration, who later asked the Wildlife Management and Nature Conservation Department officials to rescue them.

Monayem Hossain, range officer of the department in Moulvibazar, said the kittens might have travelled in the night but failed to return to the forest before dawn.

Although their mother was able to move to a safer place, her babies were trapped in the vegetable garden, he said, adding that after rescuing the kittens his department handed them over to wildlife expert Tania Khan.

Tania Khan, who has her own wildlife organisation named Save Our Unprotected Life (SOUL), is an animal researcher and a wildlife photographer.

As the kittens, aged around a month, cannot eat anything on their own she fed them oral saline for the first two days and was giving them chicken meat in liquid form for the last couple of days, Tania said.

She said it is very difficult to save babies as they are protected by their mother at such an age.

Divisional Forest Officer (wildlife) Abu Musa Shamsul Muhith Chowdhury said these cats are listed as vulnerable on the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) Red List.

They live mostly in the vicinity of wetlands, along rivers, streams, in swamps and mangroves and feed on fish, frogs and aquatic birds, having a unique way of capturing their prey for meals, he said.