The Pallas’s cat (Otocolobus manul), one of the most elusive small cats, was photographed for the first time in Arunachal Pradesh. Its documentation in the northeast Indian state extends the species’ known range in the eastern Himalayas, beyond earlier confirmed records from Sikkim in India, Bhutan, and eastern Nepal.
The photographic evidence is from a wildlife survey conducted by WWF-India in 2024, the results of which were released last month. The survey also recorded the presence of five other wild cats — snow leopard, common leopard, clouded leopard, leopard cat, and marbled cat — all at an altitude above 4,200 metres, at some of the highest elevations recorded for some of these cat species.
The WWF-India survey was conducted with support from the Forest Department, Government of Arunachal Pradesh, and the local communities, under its project to revive trans-Himalayan rangelands.
Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Pema Khandu celebrated this discovery of the Pallas’s Cat with a post on social media.
Ngilyang Tam, Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (PCCF) & the Chief Wild Life Warden (Wildlife and Biodiversity), Arunachal Pradesh, said, “The discovery of Pallas’s cat in Arunachal Pradesh is a milestone for wildlife research in the eastern Himalayas. These findings reaffirm the state’s importance as a global biodiversity hotspot and highlight the need for continued investment in scientific monitoring and conservation. The active participation of herders and villagers demonstrates that conservation, traditional knowledge, and their livelihoods can go hand in hand in protecting our fragile mountain ecosystems.”
The Pallas’s cat was photographed for the first time in Arunachal Pradesh during a survey conducted by WWF-India in 2024. The survey also documented the highest elevation records for other wild cats, like the common leopard, the marbled cat and the snow leopard. Image courtesy of WWF-India.
Species found at high elevations
As part of the survey, between July and September 2024, WWF-India deployed 136 camera traps in 83 locations across 2,000 sq km of rugged high-altitude rangelands in West Kameng and Tawang districts, making it one of their most extensive wildlife monitoring exercises, according to a press release by WWF-India. “The survey involved meticulous planning and days of trekking through remote, high-altitude areas, where extreme weather, rugged and steep terrain, logistical hurdles, and limited accessibility made the field work challenging. The camera traps were kept active for over eight months, often in extreme weather and remote, difficult-to-access terrain. The participation and partnership with local guides and community members enabled the team to overcome these challenges,” the press release stated.
The survey documented the highest elevation records for several species — common leopard (Panthera pardus) at 4,600 metres above sea level (masl), the clouded leopard (Neofelis nebulosa) at 4,650 masl, marbled cat (Pardofelis marmorata) at 4,326 masl, Himalayan wood owl (Strix nivicolum) at 4,194 masl, and grey-headed flying squirrel (Petaurista caniceps) at 4,506 masl. The elevation records documented for the common leopard, clouded leopard, marbled cat, Himalayan wood owl, and grey-headed flying squirrel were the highest in India to date and may exceed previously known global elevation limits, WWF-India wrote in the press release.
“The discovery of Pallas’s cat in Arunachal Pradesh at nearly 5,000 metres is a powerful reminder of how little we still know about life in the high Himalayas,” wrote Rishi Kumar Sharma, Head for Science and Conservation, Himalayas Programme, WWF-India, in an email to Mongabay India, explaining the significance of recording Pallas’s cat in Arunachal Pradesh. “That a landscape can support snow leopards, clouded leopards, marbled cats, and now Pallas’s cat alongside vibrant pastoral traditions speaks to its extraordinary richness and resilience. These findings highlight why community-led conservation, grounded in science and local knowledge, is indispensable for securing the future of our fragile rangelands.”
Talking about the purpose of the survey, Sharma said, “The survey was designed as part of a broader, landscape-scale effort to assess mammalian biodiversity across high-altitude habitats of Western Arunachal Pradesh, with the core focus being to estimate population density of snow leopards. We used systematic camera-trap surveys across multiple grids to document the presence and relative abundance of different species, while also generating data to inform future conservation planning in this little-studied region. We have a long-term research and conservation program in the West Kameng and Tawang districts and have been studying high-altitude wildlife for over five years now.”
Sela Pass, which lies between West Kameng and Tawang districts. In 2024, WWF-India deployed 136 camera traps across the high-altitude rangelands of both districts. The researchers trekked through extreme weather and steep terrain with the help of local guides and community members. Representative image by Abhishek Gaurav via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Aside from wild cats, the survey by WWF-India also documented the highest elevation record for the grey-headed flying squirrel (Petaurista caniceps) at 4,506 masl. Representative image by Sun Jiao via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).
The grumpy cat
The sighting of Pallas’s cat was at an altitude that is a little lower than the highest altitude ever recorded for the species (~5,050 m above sea level). Known as the “grumpy cat” because of its appearance, this cold-adapted wild cat is one of the most elusive, rarely photographed, and therefore remains one of the least studied feline species.
Speaking on previous reports of Pallas’s cat in Arunachal Pradesh, Sharma said, “To our knowledge, there has been no prior photographic documentation of Pallas’s cat from Arunachal Pradesh. Historical records from India are extremely scarce and often anecdotal, with most confirmed sightings and research coming from the higher altitudes of Ladakh and surrounding trans-Himalayan regions. This makes the photographic evidence from Arunachal a significant range extension record for the species within the Indian Himalaya.”
Elaborating on the probable prey of Pallas’s cat, he said, “At the elevations where we documented Pallas’s cat (3,500–5,000 m), the likely prey base consists of small mammals such as pika (Ochotona spp.), woolly hare (Lepus oiostolus), and various voles. Ground-nesting birds can also be important seasonally. These prey species are abundant in alpine meadows and shrub-steppe habitats, which Pallas’s cats are well-adapted to exploit.”
Pastoral traditions enabling coexistence
The survey also captured images of the Brokpa herding community and their livestock. This documentation, notes the WWF-India press release, underscores centuries-old pastoral traditions that have enabled coexistence between people and wildlife in these high-altitude rangelands.
Speaking to Mongabay India about the Brokpa community, Sharma said, “The Brokpa are an ethnolinguistic community inhabiting high-altitude villages of West Kameng and Tawang districts in Arunachal Pradesh. They are estimated to number around 5,000-6,000 people in India. Traditionally semi-nomadic yak and sheep herders, their livelihoods are deeply tied to high-altitude pastures. Today, many continue to practice transhumance, moving livestock seasonally, though younger generations increasingly engage in agriculture, small trade, and wage labor with the General Reserve Engineering Force (GREF).”
Commenting on the relationship of the Brokpa community with local wildlife, he said, “The Brokpa maintain a close, and often positive, relationship with local wildlife. On the one hand, predators such as snow leopards and wild dogs occasionally take livestock, creating conflict. On the other hand, their pastoral lifestyle and customary institutions contribute to the maintenance of extensive rangeland ecosystems that also support wild herbivores and carnivores. Through our work, we have sought to document not only the wildlife of this landscape but also the lived realities, traditional knowledge, and cultural values of the Brokpa, which are central to any long-term conservation effort in these fragile highlands.”
This article originally appeared on Mongabay. Read the original articlehere.
