Research overview: fishing cat camera-trap monitoring in wetlands

The fishing cat is a wetland-dependent felid of South and Southeast Asia, adapted to hunting in marshes, mangroves, and along waterways, and camera traps are central to monitoring its scattered, declining populations. This overview surveys survey approaches tailored to wetland habitats, placing cameras along water edges, fish ponds, and reed beds, and the challenges of flooding, dense vegetation, and human-dominated landscapes where fishing cats increasingly persist near aquaculture and agriculture. It discusses individual identification from spot patterns, occupancy and density estimation given sparse detections, and the use of camera data to document distribution, conflict, and habitat use. The overview highlights how camera trapping supports conservation of a threatened cat whose marshland home is among the most rapidly disappearing habitats, providing evidence to guide wetland protection and conflict mitigation.