Conservationists snapped images of two small wildcat species in Pakistan earlier this year: an Asiatic caracal (Caracal caracal schimitzi) and a sand cat (Felis margarita) — both which are incredibly rare in the country. Information on both cats in Pakistan is limited, with the sand cat presumed possibly extinct there, according to the IUCN, the global wildlife conservation authority. The camera-trap image of the caracal is “very rare visual evidence of the once widespread but now rapidly declining species,” says Zafeer Ahmed Shaikh, director of the Indus Fishing Cat Project. That image — the first camera-trap record of a caracal in Pakistan, according to Shaikh — came from Kirthar National Park, where the Indus Fishing Cat Project, an NGO, has had cameras set for around four years. The team decided to extend its camera trapping after earlier reports of a caracal crossing a road in broad daylight in the area in January this year. The NGO’s local partners, Qalandar Burfat, Zohaib Ahmed and Ramzan Burfat, set up the trap near a watering hole inside the national park. “There was only one singular video of this male cat from about 400 videos at this particular camera station across a two-week-long period,” Shaikh says. Unfortunately, another sighting included one juvenile cat killed in the national park by local people. These images offer firm evidence that caracals are still present in Pakistan, says Jim Sanderson, founder and director of the Small Wild Cat Conservation Foundation. “But, as with most places, we have no…This article was originally published on Mongabay

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