On September 2nd, 2013, Bandhu, meaning “friend” in Nepali, was born. He began his life quite small, weighing a pound and 12 ounces at 5 weeks of age. He lives at the Wild Cat Education and Conservation Fund in the heart of a redwood forest in California.
Recently, I was privileged to deliver a WNPS lecture on small wild cats in Sri Lanka. A big portion of the talk was of course dedicated to my work at the Urban Fishing Cat Conservation Project, here in Colombo, Sri Lanka.
While I’ve given talks before, I was simply blown away by the interest shown by this particular audience, and I spent over an hour after the event, chatting to many people who shared my enthusiasm for protecting our fishing cats.
Something that nearly everyone asked me, both at the talk, and in the days after, is how can I help? I hope this post answers that question!
Last year I was granted funds by the Mohamed bin Zayed Species Conservation Fund a reputed funding organisation dedicated to helping researchers like me to study the wildlife we all know (in some cases) and love (in almost all cases).
Last October a team from the Mohamed bin Zayed Species Conservation Fund (MBZSCF) landed in sunny Sri Lanka to discuss a dugong project. In-between these discussions, they dabbled with grantees who received funds that year. I, was one of them. Here’s the amazing film they made on the urban fishing cats in Sri Lanka!
Last year, we were approached by Plimsoll Productions, about participating in a documentary called “The Story of Cats“. We were to be filmed for the segment on fishing cats (obviously!). Since ITV doesn’t air in Sri Lanka, one of Fi’s friends dropped her a text saying that she saw us on TV. So after quite a bit of searching, I came across the video. Due to streaming rights, I can’t post the link here. You’ll have to do some digging yourself.
After about 2 years of science, it is finally time to get the proverbial ball rolling on the whole awareness aspect of my work. I’m a strong believer that awareness and education plays a massive role in conservation efforts. Yes, science does a lot, but most people aren’t scientists. Have you tried reading a journal article? They are really technical and unless you know the background, can be quite daunting. So how could I expect someone from a non-science background to read the sciency stuff? But, awareness is fun, so I am glad that we got funds to do this!
After nearly an year in the making, the Symposium on the Wild Cats of South Asia, Past and Present was underway. It was organised by the Wildlife and Nature Protection Society (WNPS), and was held between the 2nd and 3rd of November 2015.
