Short Communication First photographic record of Jungle Cat Felis chaus Schreber, 1777 (Mammalia: Carnivora: Felidae) in Haripur District, Pakistan

The Jungle Cat Felis chaus was recorded in Pakistan’s Haripur District during a camera trapping survey in March to April 2019. This is the first photographic evidence of its presence outside a protected area in northern Pakistan.


PLATINUM OPEN ACCESS
Little is known about the status and conservation needs of the Jungle Cat Felis chaus in Pakistan (Sheikh & Molur 2004). Roberts (1977) considered it ''the most widely distributed and adaptable smaller cat'' in the country that is ''well able to hold its own in areas of human settlement''. It is thought to favour riverine thickets and irrigated plantations (Roberts 1977). In 1979 and1980, about 169,000 Jungle Cat skins were imported to the United States, most of which originated in Pakistan and India (McMahan 1986). In the Indian subcontinent, it is threatened by habitat loss due to industrialisation and urbanisation of scrubland and low intensity agricultural areas (Gray et al. 2016). In Pakistan, its natural habitat was assessed in 2004 to be declining by <10% within 10 years due to changes in land use (Sheikh & Molur 2004). Since this assessment, a few authors announced its presence in several protected areas in the country (Ali et al. 2003;Nawaz 2008;Khan & Siddiqui 2009;Laghari 2011a, Rais et al. 2011Khan et al. 2012Khan et al. , 2015Begum et al. 2013). They only referred to sightings and indirect observations without providing photographic evidence. To date, a comprehensive view of the cat's contemporary distribution in Pakistan is lacking.
Here we report the first photographic record of the Jungle Cat in northern Pakistan, obtained during a brief camera trapping survey in a human-dominated area.

Study area
This survey was conducted in the frame of a program to document the wildlife in a rural landscape in Haripur District. This district is located in Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province north of Islamabad and known in particular for production of Citrus and other fruits (Shah

J TT
The 3.5km 2 large study area encompasses three villages and an industrial estate ( Figure 1). The agricultural fields surrounding residential areas are interspersed with grazing ground for small livestock, patches of natural bushland and small orchards (Image 1). Elevation ranges from 493m to 513m.
December and January are the coldest months in the area (Fazal et al. 2010), with temperatures dropping to 3°C and 4°C and a precipitation of 48mm and 74mm per month, respectively (Weather Atlas 2019). June and July are the hottest months (Fazal et al. 2010), with temperatures of 39°C and 37°C, respectively, and a maximum rainfall of 246mm (Weather Atlas 2019).

Material and methods
Two Bushnell Trophy HD camera traps (model Essential 119736 with infrared flash) were deployed with a distance of 500-900 m between locations. They were mounted at four locations at a height of 40-50 cm above ground. They were set to be active for 24hr and to take three consecutive photographs at an interval of one second. A scent lure for attracting furbearers (Kaatz Bros. Beaver Lure) was spread on stones and on wood in front of the camera traps.
Sunset and sunrise times were obtained using the database of the Astronomical Applications Department of the United States Naval Observatory (2019).

Results
Camera trapping was carried out from 2 March to 28 April 2019, with a total survey effort of 56 camera trap days. A Jungle Cat was recorded at an elevation of 510m; it repeatedly entered a residential area in the night of 14 to 15 March between 23.11h and 01.18h (Image 2).
Other wildlife species recorded by the camera traps comprise Golden Jackal Canis aureus and Wild Boar Sus scrofa. Red Fox Vulpes vulpes, Indian Grey Mongoose Herpestes edwardsi, Cape Hare Lepus capensis, Indian Crested Porcupine Hystrix indica, and Indian Flying Fox Pteropus giganteus were sighted.

Discussion
Our record appears to be among the northernmost records of the Jungle Cat in Pakistan (Figure 2). Roberts (1977) considered it to be less common in this part of the country than farther south, based on hunting records available at the time. It is thought to be present

J TT
District in Punjab Province (Image 3), and in Langh Lake Wildlife Sanctuary in Sindh Province (Image 4). Records in India and Iran indicate that it is active both by day and after dark (Mukherjee 1989;Majumder et al. 2011;Kalle et al. 2013;Kumara et al. 2014;Sanei et al. 2016).
The detection of only two other wildlife species may be due to the limitations of this survey, both in time and available equipment. The scent lure used in front of camera traps might have scared off smaller mammals.
Further effort is needed to obtain a comprehensive view of the Jungle Cat's current distribution and ecology in Pakistan. To widen the knowledge on the species, we suggest to create an online database and encourage wildlife photographers and citizen scientists to share their records. This would facilitate to model its distribution and habitat use.
In Pakistan, camera traps were first used in wildlife research targeting Snow Leopard Panthera uncia in www.threatenedtaxa.org The Journal of Threatened Taxa (JoTT) is dedicated to building evidence for conservation globally by publishing peer-reviewed articles online every month at a reasonably rapid rate at www.threatenedtaxa.org. All articles published in JoTT are registered under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License unless otherwise mentioned. JoTT allows allows unrestricted use, reproduction, and distribution of articles in any medium by providing adequate credit to the author(s) and the source of publication.