A fishing cat found badly injured and malnourished in northern Bangladesh has been returned to the wild following months of intensive rehabilitation. The feline was recently released into a tea estate bordering a large freshwater wetland, after being fitted with a satellite-tracking collar. Fishing cats (Prionailurus viverrinus), one of the larger species of small wildcats, may number as many as 7,500 in the wild, according to the IUCN, the global wildlife conservation authority. They’re found mostly in India, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh, where roughly 95% of their range falls outside protected areas. They also occur in Cambodia, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, and Thailand; and are thought locally extinct in Indonesia and Vietnam. The Bangladesh Forest Department rescued the male fishing cat in February 2026 and transferred it to the Jankichara Wildlife Rescue and Rehabilitation Centre in the country’s northeast. The odds that it would survive was low, according to the Creative Conservation Alliance (CCA), the conservation nonprofit that runs the center. “His jaw was dislocated, most likely from being beaten by people, and he could not feed himself. He was badly malnourished and weighed barely five kilograms [11 pounds],” Caesar Rahman, CEO of the CCA, told Mongabay by email. “We had very little hope that he would survive.” After weeks of assisted tube feeding and veterinary treatment, the cat’s health improved and it eventually reached 12 kg (26.5 lb). To ensure a smooth transition back into the wild, conservationists kept the cat in a soft-release enclosure at the Ooterbhag and Indanugger…This article was originally published on Mongabay

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