Bandipur, August 5, 2015: Wildlife Trust of India’s (WTI) Mobile Veterinary Service (MVS) Bandipur on August 5, 2015, received a young female rusty spotted cat after she was confiscated from a family that had found her wandering on the road side near Bandipur Tiger Reserve. Unfortunately, the WTI MVS team were unable to find the exact spot from where she was picked or else the team could have tried locating the mother and reuniting the two.

The kitten didn’t make a fuss the day she was brought back to the field station for examination. The kitten was visibly weak and dehydrated and was provided veterinary care by the WTI team to which it responded very well. “The next day, however, she managed to sink her sharp fangs into my hand when I was putting out some food for her. She does have a healthy fear of humans though, which is great as she is destined to be released back into the wild,” said Dr Shantanu Kalambi, Veterinarian, MVS Bandipur.

The team has now fondly named her ‘Argh’ for the sounds she draws out whenever someone approaches her. After taking care of the kitten for more than a month, it is now old enough to be shifted to her new enclosure outdoors where she will learn to survive in a sheltered environment, until she is old and fit enough for release.

“We have planned out a soft release programme where she will be slowly acclimatized to the habitat in which she will be released into. She will be taught how to hunt and provide for herself as well as protect herself from possible predators. I have absolutely no doubt she will survive in the wild,” said Shantanu.

Extremely rare, rusty spotted cat is listed as a vulnerable species in the IUCN Red List. Smallest cat in the world, the rusty spotted cat, is found across India, except for the north east states of the country?.

For the ‎first ‎time in ‎Karnataka, WTI in collaboration with Forest Department and Aircel started the MVS unit at the ‎Bandipur Tiger ‎Reserve in June 2015. The MVS is facilitating the ‎rescue of wildlife in BTR and immediately responding to all wildlife ‎emergencies reported from the region.

This dedicated mobile unit has a trained ‎veterinarian and a ‎caretaker, who are ready at any time of the day to respond to wildlife emergencies. The unit would be based at Melkhamanahalli Special Tiger Protection Force (STPF) camp and will be operational 24X7 with a hotline wherein villagers can call in case of an animal emergency.

This is the seventh WTI MVS unit in India and the first in southern India. The MVS units currently stationed at Assam, Arunachal Pradesh and Odisha have been phenomenally successful in carrying out rescue and release operations in their respective areas.