Guwahati, Aug. 21 -- Nabarun Guha

In a major scientific discovery, the first photographic evidence of the marbled cat (Pardofelis marmorata) was captured in Kakoi Reserve Forest, North Lakhimpur district, Assam. The marbled cat, classified as near threatened in the IUCN Red List, is granted the highest level of protection under Schedule I of the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972.

The photograph was recorded in July 2024 by camera traps set up as part of an ongoing biodiversity monitoring project in the Kakoi Reserve Forest. The findings were recently published in theJournal of Threatened Taxa.

"We had laid camera traps to study the movement and ecology of small mammal species in the Kakoi Reserve Forest. During this exercise, we got photog...