Meet Fishing Cat Field Researcher
Sagar Dahal
My name is Sagar Dahal. I am from Eastern Tarai of Nepal but live in Kathmandu now. I have a Masters in Zoology from Tribhuvan University, Nepal. I am also a co-founder of Small Mammals Conservation and Research Foundation which is a leading organization for the research and conservation of small mammals within Nepal.
I lead the small cats conservation team. My quest of searching for Fishing Cats started when I first live trapped the fishing cat in Chitwan National Park in 2011.
Recently, my team completed a survey of fishing cats in Jagadispur Reservoir in Kapilvastu and Ghodaghodi lake in Kailali districts. We used camera traps and recorded fishing cat for the first time outside the protected area from four locations of Jagadishpur Reservoir and Banganga river in Kapilvastu district. In addition to that we also recorded jungle cat in Jagadishpur reservoir.
Unfortunately, we could not record any Fishing Cats in Ghodaghodi lake but we recorded leopard cat. My upcoming plan is to join the missing dots of distribution of fishing cat outside the protected area along the foothills of Chure range in Nepal. I am also looking forward to doing a PhD on ecology and behavior of Fishing Cats of Nepal.
See his recent post of new Fishing Cat sightings outside of protected areas: http://smallwildcats.com/fishing-cats-in-nepal-2015-feb-18/
Find Sagar Dahal on Facebook.
