The Fishing Cat

tim-

what are this cat's closest relatives?

is there evidence of felines having developed similar water associated traits in the past?

The only close relative I can think of.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkish_Van

What about these rows I found by googling:
"Despite its fishing habits, the fishing cat does not show marked morphological adaptations to capturing or eating fish. ...
Although webbed feet have often been noted as a characteristic of the fishing cat, Kitchener (1991) shows that the webbing beneath the toes is not much more developed than that of a bobcat."
http://lynx.uio.no/lynx/catsgportal/cat-website/catfolk/viver01.htm

"...shows that the webbing beneath the toes is not much more developed than that of a bobcat."

Cetaceans had to start somewhere.

The only close relative I can think of. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkish_Van

a great blog this is ~admiring

It calls to mind one of my favorite passages from the first edition of Origin , about a bear swimming in a lake with its mouth open catching floating insects and how if the supply of floating insects was consistent, the bears could become more aquatic summing beneficial traits over many generations until you had a creature "as monstrous as a whale." Sadly, Darwin took this bit out in later editions because he was ridiculed for it.

While I was looking for more video of the fishing cat on YouTube I came across this subscriber channel: "BigCatRescue", of which does regular segments on big cats, and does have one on the fishing cat. It's a great resource, here is the link: www.youtube.com/user/BigCatRescue

Speaking of Darwin's aquatic bear... I just came across this on BBC.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6687129.stm

It's only microevolution because they're still cats.

Kidding, kidding.

It's only microevolution because they're still cats. Kidding, kidding.

More seriously, however, it looks as though subtle "cognitive" abilities that help animals exploit an ecological niche can open up a whole new evolutionary path. There are many ways such a diversion onto another path can take place.

Mike Elzinga -

That is actually an interesting thought.

I'm not sure whether highly flexible species that can adapt to multiple environments should give rise to a lot of different lineages, since they can go into a lot of different environments, or whether it should be the opposite - lower selective pressure on such species in any environment.

The example of humans is complicated by cooperative and social behaviors, and by the strong tendency for human groups to breed with neighboring groups, making the human population highly contiguous over the long run.

I'm not sure whether highly flexible species that can adapt to multiple environments should give rise to a lot of different lineages, since they can go into a lot of different environments, or whether it should be the opposite - lower selective pressure on such species in any environment.

i'm not sure why to think of this as a "remarkable example[s] of evolution." cats are smart as hell! tigers love to swim, don't they? if i was a cat and lived near a creek, i'd want some of that tasty fish, too.

this reminds me of a brief article i read a long time ago, don't know where, about the idea that hominins didn't evolve from pre-hominins on the savanna, but rather in the river. i don't remember the logic, just the hypothesis.

anybody?

this reminds me of a brief article i read a long time ago, don't know where, about the idea that hominins didn't evolve from pre-hominins on the savanna, but rather in the river. i don't remember the logic, just the hypothesis.

i'm not sure why to think of this as a "remarkable example[s] of evolution." cats are smart as hell! tigers love to swim, don't they? if i was a cat and lived near a creek, i'd want some of that tasty fish, too.

The example of humans is complicated by cooperative and social behaviors, and by the strong tendency for human groups to breed with neighboring groups, making the human population highly contiguous over the long run.

A better combination might be a mix of relative specialists that exploit complementary parts of the ecosystem in a way that provides support for each other.

tropical reef systems.

however; my impression of this cat is that it hasn't had long to diverge into this fish eating niche among cats.

er, using "felines" in the loosest possible sense, anyway.

also an interesting question you raise as to whether these guys really are obligate piscivores

I seem to recall reading they basically are, but was unable to track down the specific reference.

however, in trying to track the reference down using "obligate piscivore" as search term, I did run across a very interesting report from the US Fish and Wildlife service.

completely unrelated, but very interesting (and a bit scary) nonetheless:

http://www.fws.gov/sacramento/ec/Methylmercury%20Criterion%20Evaluation%20Final%20Report%20October%202003.pdf

warning: not for bedtime reading.

also, since it's so OT, I only mention it as a complete tangent.

holy crap, i just check out the links to the kitten photos...

http://www.cathouse-fcc.org/images/bullet1mon.jpg

it's a cuteness overdose.

now I gotta go look at a picture of Ann Coulter, just to recover.

Fishing cats are best described as piscivores. Earliest records indicate that fishing cats predominantly feed on fish and shellfish. These early records also state that fishing cats have been known to eat dogs, sheep, and calves. At that time fishing cats were known to have taken human infants (Finn, 1929). In 1987 a fishing cat was observed eating a dead cow, so it is believed that they eat carrion (Haque, 1988). A study examining the food habits of P. viverrinus revealed that that they primarily feed on fish. A frequency analysis showed that out of 144 scats examined, 109 contained fish, 39 contained birds, 31 contained grass, 18 contained insects, 13 contained rodents, and 11 contained a mixture of snakes, lizards, mollusks, rabbits and cows (Haque and Vijayan, 1993). (Finn, 1929; Haque and Vijayan, 1993; Haque, 1988)

tropical rain forests

this reminds me of a brief article i read a long time ago, don't know where, about the idea that hominins didn't evolve from pre-hominins on the savanna, but rather in the river. i don't remember the logic, just the hypothesis.

That's because there isn't any logic, just a hotbed of false "facts" and logical fallacies. :) As Mike Elzinga posted, you are thinking of the "aquatic ape" idea. While the Wiki article he points to isn't horrible, it does contain a lot of nonsense, and I'm (probably) not going to touch it for fear of starting a Wiki-war. (Simply removing some inappropriate editorialising about a link to my site there last year was problematic, because of the oddly partisan nature of the proponents.)

Anyway, I've got a site pointing out the problems with the idea, including many examples of logical fallacies (the idea is actually -- IMO -- a good teaching resource about logical fallacies because it has so many). I've also written an entry on the subject for the Sage Encyclopedia of Anthropology (which is so expensive, however, that even a lot of university libraries may not have it). The site is Aquatic Ape Theory: Sink or Swim?

CrazyQat:

Thanks for that other link to the Aquatic Ape Hypothesis. I have a couple of Elaine Morgan's books (Scars of Evolution and the Aquatic Ape Hypothesis) and I thought they were crap, but I'm not qualified enough in this area to rip them apart.

From my first glance at the Wikipedia article I noted there were some of the criticisms I've heard. It was off topic, and I figured no one was going to spend much time on it here.

I can imagine that the biologists gag on this stuff like I gag on all the voodoo that some people can churn out using "quantum mechanics" to gussy it up to make it look sophisticated. It turns out to be pseudo-intellectual junk that makes some people think they are getting some really deep insights. Shudder!

Now that I am retired and have a little more discretionary time, I am gradually picking up on some of the concepts in biology and evolution, but still shaky on the technical terminology (doing the "concepts first, technical terms later" schtick). But I guess that is better than those ID/Creationists who toss around the technical words without seeming to have a clue about the concepts to which they refer.

And yes, further into the Amazon Basin, large portions of the tropical rain forest are suffering at man's hand, but this is small pickings compared to the (to me, surprising) effects of global warming in the region.

global warming is primarily the work of humans

complex interlocking ecosystems that was fairly robust

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