ExtinctZoo - This Cat Is Evolving Into A Fish

Episode Date: October 8, 2025

You know the story, cats hate water, but this is really a great lie that has been pushed onto you, as in Asia, there is one cat species that has not only evolved to like water, but essentially live in it...Hey all, if you want to help out this little catfish, consider checking out some of the following projects/groups:fishingcats.lk (local group in Sri Lanka)fishingcat.org (group that supports projects across South & Southeast Asia)rewild.org/wild-about/fishing-cat (global org; supports multiple different conservation projects across the world; strong credentials so you can be sure donations are used effectively)internationalconservationfund.org/fishingcats (global org, supports a project in Cambodia)😺🐟

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second best friend, there are some pretty universal truths that exist among them. They've got nine lives, always land on their feet, or crazed addicts for catnip, and of course, hate water, with a deep and burning passion at that. Now, I was obviously being a bit sarcastic when I said universal truths. But it is true that many cats do actually dislike water, and they have some pretty good reasons to do so. For starters, their coats, which are nice and soft, are great at trapping and absorbing water, leading to them feeling weighted down and less agile after taking a dip. A bit like we might feel after hitting the all-you-can-eat-sushi buffet, if you know what I mean. To go along with this, their coats also take an awful lot of time to fully dry off, making them not only less agile in the

meantime, but also more vulnerable to becoming cold. And if a heavy, cold, wet coat wasn't bad enough, they also have their sensitive whiskers to worry about, as they are also negatively impacted. A calamity for them, as these whiskers help cats to sense and navigate their environments. So when they're wet, their legendary cat-like senses are thrown right out the window, kind of. And they might even be hardwired to steer clear of the wet stuff, as all cast is sent from a single ancestor, of course, which evolved in the Middle East, the African wildcat, who still to this day inhabits a dry desert climate, where water tends to be scarce. And so they are rarely exposed, relatively speaking, to rain, lakes, or rivers. And thus water, in especially large amounts,

can be rather unfamiliar to them, and therefore a bit spooky. And this apprehension seems to have partially passed on to the cat that may or may not be sitting on your keyboard at this very moment. And for the most part, other felonae or small cats err on the side of caution when it comes to water as well. However, there is one wild cat out there that doesn't just mind water, or even like it but outright loves it and has evolved several adaptations that kind of makes me wonder if we are looking at the first feline that will become a catfish get it and its name is prionelaris the veronis also known as the fishing cat now you may be thinking back to a time when you saw a cat catch or eat a fish in our thinking therefore wait have i seen a fishing cat before and the answer is

a resounding no because if you don't live in just a few regions of south or southeast asia then you've you've almost for a certain never laid your eyes on one, as it's only in these parts that the species can be found. And even if you do travel to these regions, good luck spotting one without getting seriously wet, as these guys stay far away from urban areas and have evolved to the point that they basically need water to survive. And by that, I mean, large bodies of water. Therefore, you'll tend to only find them near or inside wetlands, where they take up residents along rivers, swamps, mangroves, oxpo lakes, or streams. And in these environments, The fishing cat has established a life more like that of an alligator than its fellow felines,

with its main prey by a mile, being fish. And collected fishing cat feces has revealed that sushi comprises about three-fourths of their entire diets, with the most common fish being tilapia, chromide, and mollet. The rest of their diets are usually then made up of a bit more exotic food choices, such as crabs, rodents, insects, birds, reptiles, amphibians, mollusks, and carrion. So suffice to say, these guys aren't exactly what I'd call picky eaters. And just like the diversity we see in their taste of food, we also see that fishing cats have created more than one way to secure the bag, if you will. As observations have shown two main hunting strategies among populations.

The first is that a cat will patiently stalk and wait along the edges of the water, yonking prey out that wander too close to their waiting claws. Pretty basic. The second, more entertaining and lively methodology, is what I term the full commitment strat, as essentially a fishing cat will embody an Olympic diver and lunge straight first into the water when a spots. prey, where it will then proceed to grapple with it. And to do this like the goat that it is, the fishing cat has some remarkable features on its side, which you don't usually see in other kitties. And the most easily identifiable of these traits is probably its odd feet, which are webbed. Now, many cats in general do possess webbed feet, but in the fishing cat, the degree

of webbing is rather extensive, to say the least, and the actual membrane that connects the toes is fairly thick too, which combined provides the fishing cat with some nice surface area when hitting those strokes out in the water. And then, in a shocking betrayal to feline kind, the fishing cat has also abandoned the usual retractable claws that we'd expect, as they're always, at least a bit exposed. And the reason for this is that this helps to maintain balance when navigating wet and often slippery terrains at all times, while also allowing it to secure tight grips on its prey, which typically are just as slippery as the surface it's walking on. Moving up from the feet, we then immediately come upon its next unusual feature, the actual legs,

which have become, relatively speaking, much shorter than the cat norm. In other words, the fishing cat is a certified short king. But this turns out to be exactly what it needs, as the legs then also have a very muscular build, which together with reduced length means stability in water and mud, thus allowing it to easily wait, and providing a low-down stealthy profile that pays off when ambush hunting. The robust construction of their limbs further adds a few stats to their power level,

guaranteeing that a wriggling slippery fish has no chance of avoiding its fate of becoming sushi-fied. In short, it seems to be the name of the game here, as even beyond its legs, another body part also got snipped, something which is sacred to the house cats, and that be the tail. In fishing cats, the tail's greatly shrunk in size over time, and is not nearly as long as what's seen in other cats, even though they're very closely related. And generally, the tail only accounts for 25% or so of their entire body lengths, compared to the 33% to 66% seen in domesticated cats. And this might seem counterintuitive, especially since we usually imagine a quadile,

animals with large long tails, such as the one seen in sharks and whales. But in the case of the cat, short is essential, as it basically transforms into a living boat, so to speak, acting as a rudder in some sense, providing stability and a way to better control the direction that it's swimming in. So at this point, you really should be getting the idea that fishing cats are basically catfish, and have everything they need to do all the swimming in the world. However, there is still one more dilemma to the typical cat features, which I did not address, and that is the problem surrounding the coats of cats, which again, typically absorb and hold water for long durations, making it rather problematic to have a watery lifestyle. And to get around this pitfall, the fishing cat has

essentially reinvented the fur coat from top to bottom. To be a bit more precise, each individual possesses two crucial parts of the coat. The first is an ultra-compact dense layer of fur, which lays right against its skin, and is made up of hairs that are more tightly packed than in Japanese subway. And what this does is that it helps prevent water from actually reaching the skin, helping the cat stay dry and warm while submerged. Then separately, it also some nifty hairs called guard hairs, which are longer and help it easily shed water. Additionally, it is these guard hairs that also give the fishing cat a distinctive appearance

and camouflage, with deep yellowish-grieved fur covering its body that is then adorned with various black lines and spots, which also makes it very unlikely that you'd mistake the fishing cat for a house pet. And something else about this feline that sets it apart from domesticating, to cats, is that it's a plumpster, and actually the heaviest species of the entire genus it belongs to, prionelarous, with adults sometimes reaching 37 pounds or 17 kilos in weight, making it also among the largest species of phelene, which again are the small cats. And just to give you a taste for what that looks like, Mr. Whiskers here is an unusual

house cat of the same weight. And in the case of Mr. Whiskers, you may need to cut back on the kibble. But for fishing cats, this additional weight is crucial for tackling larger fish that can be deceitfully powerful in their own right. So, all in all, these guys obviously have a knack for fishing and are very well adapted for that beach life. But how exactly does something like this happen with cats? And the answer? Some trial and error and a whole lot of time. Studies in the nuclear DNA from tissue samples

has deduced that all species of prionelarus shared a common ancestor which lived about 8.1 to 8.7 million years ago, from whom they descended. With the first species to pop up being the prionelarus, Rubigenosis, Now, this guy, commonly referred to as the rusty spotted cat, is quite different from our later fishing cat, being much smaller in size and preferring green over blue, with it being found primarily in the deciduous forest and grasslands of India, Nepal, and Sri Lanka. From these areas, the genus spread out and radiated, leading to the next species, the flat-headed cat, who is something of a hybrid between the fishing and rusty cat, seeing that it does eat a lot of fish and hangs around riverine environments,

but it still doesn't actually like to venture into the depths. And from there, there's just a little bit more reworking, and thus we finally get the protagonist of our story, who became much more specialized and well adapted to aquatic environments. And at this point, water is pretty much in their blood, and I don't just mean that literally, which it literally is, as fishing cats start very early in the whole water business. In fact, newborns will instinctively start playing in the water at just two months old,

which at that point, they haven't even fully weaned onto solid foods, And so therefore, by the time they actually reach adolescence, treading water is already second nature to these guys. And lucky for them, they have kept the excellent senses that cats are known for, including amazing smell and quick reflexes, while they also have evolved relatively large eyes that are close together. And this adaptation doesn't just help them spot yummy sushi underwater, but also to see in the darkness,

which is important considering that fishing cats are believed to be primarily nocturnal creatures, who therefore do much of their hunting in low-light conditions. And that's pretty crazy. As I mean, personally, I think trying to catch fish a night with my bare hands would probably be impossible, yet they obviously get the job done and do it well, even being known to build their own many fishing kingdoms, as each individual cat can achieve remarkable ranges, which in some cases far exceed the size of Central Park, with males in particular being able to establish territories that are six times the total size of the park. Which, just to put that in perspective, in human terms, that would be like having a domain the size of Paris.

So, they're definitely getting their 10,000 steps in. There's also no doubt that it takes monumental work for each one to ensure no trespassers. And in order to defend their territories, individuals will utilize some lovely fragrance urine sprays to leave scent marks that has somehow been touted as smelling worse in the urine of a domesticated cat, which is pretty scary. However, possessing such vast ranges does come with a cost, or rather being a fishing cat comes with the cons, as right now things aren't exactly going great for them. For starters, a recent study found they're quite vulnerable to a lot of nasty path.

pathogens and diseases, such as carnivore, proto-parvovirus, 1, a parvovirus which is highly contagious amongst populations and causes significant damage to their kidneys, spleen, and GI tracts, and is in many cases unfortunately fatal. And if this wasn't enough for them, other common ailments noted include hemoplasmas, cancers, and feline distemper virus, while round worms, too, have been referenced as a large cause of death in the youngsters. And these problems are part of the reason why fishing cats are known to have very short lifespans in the wild. But with that said, disease is by no means the only suspect to blame, as primates are another huge issue. And sadly, I ain't talking about chimps, but rather ourselves. Go figure. And to the dismay

of this feline, it's not just one issue that we cause for them, but rather a large multitude. How fun. Currently, the biggest problem is the destruction of the wetlands on which they rely, whether being a big put to transform many areas into aquaculture ponds, while rampant pollution doesn't help either. And a recent estimates state that just 6% of wetlands where they live remain unaffected by humanity. In other words, 94% of every environment they live in has been altered by humans negatively in some way. And in addition to destroying their homes and food supplies, we are, quote unquote, kind enough to just kill them straight up too. And people do so for various reasons. In certain places, they're usually killed because they're received as competition by

fishing farmers. While in other places, they're often shot by locals after being misidentified for tiger cubs, which seems kind of hard, but okay. And the killings are so bad that are radio caller study on individuals across all ages, found that over 30% died from human killings in just a three-year period. And these deaths do not even count for road kill incidents, by the way, which are getting more common. And so with all these horrors plaguing the cat, it shouldn't come as a shocker that their numbers have plummeted in recent times. And then a five-year period alone, from 2010 to 2015, it's believed that 30% of the entire global population died out. Sounds like the black death in Europe kind of numbers. And as a result of this alarming trend, the cat was eventually

classified as a vulnerable animal. And that was back in 2016, so who knows how many have died since then. But it's not their wild numbers range from 10,000 to as few as 2,000 individuals across the entire planet. So a travesty, no doubt. And it's not every day you get a cat that spends a time and water rather than land. However, and this is a big, however, while there is a large hill in front of it, metaphorically, not all news is doom and gloom for the fishing cat, as there are those out there trying their best to preserve this amazing creature. For starters, it is earned a protection status by national legislations in most of its habitats, and hunting has been banned outright by the majority of countries it lives in. While in Laos, there are regulations, and the

Bhutan, Malaysian, Vietnam, all have designated protection zones. But I personally say we have to expand that to whole country-level zones. And there's also been a rise in organizations interested in saving this unique fuel line, who specialize with locals to provide alternative means of acquiring food and income that don't require kabooming the wetlands to smithereens. And I'll be dropping some links in the comment below with some more information so please go check that out and so this is obviously all welcome news but unfortunately or rather perhaps fortunately not everyone is so optimistic that the current efforts are enough to permanently get the fishing cat over the hump so to speak and so these guys have got an insurance plan which is various zoos around the world keeping populations just in case they get wiped out in the

wild which is both good but also not a lovely thought to think about and i for one am really hoping we can avoid this and get our act together to make a concerted effort effort to save these guys, as I'd like to imagine the possibility of having fishing cats in the near future. So check out the comment or description for those links. Thanks for watching. Ryan Reynolds here for Mintmobile. I don't know if you knew this, but anyone can get the same premium wireless for $15 a month plan that I've been enjoying. It's not just for celebrities, so do like I did and have one of your assistants assistants to switch you to Mintmobile today. I'm told it's super easy to do at mintmobile.com slash switch. Up front payment of $45 for

three-month plan equivalent to $15 per month required. Intro rate first three months only, then full-price plan options available. Taxes and fees extra. See full terms at mintmobile.com. Until next time.