Small Wild Cat Attacked by Monkeys and Crows

By Rudolph A. Furtado

This is nature in the raw. A small wild cat is being attacked by macaque monkeys, crows and a dog who chased the cat up the tree. It all occurred in Shimla, India, which is a beautiful city in the north of India; a place frequented by the British during the British Raj. This map shows where it is:

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I was holidaying in Shimla and captured this rather distressing scene. To cat lovers: please note that the cat survives this experience in the video. You won’t see something that is too upsetting.

Here is my description of the events with a few photos of the episode recorded in serial order stamped on the photos. In the first instance, a dog is shown on a tree, having chased this cat onto the tree. Next, the monkeys take turns in trying to dislodge this cat from its perch on the tree. I was surprised at the intelligence of this pair of monkeys, one of them literally shaking the tree to dislodge the cat (see video).

This cat held on tenaciously to the branch, crouched low and still akin to a statue. the jungle crows were also active in trying to attack it. when i finally left the scene, this cat was still perched dangerously on the topmost branch of the tree. I returned to the scene after approximately 2 hours and found the trees empty, the entire place desolate as if nothing had happened early in the morning, akin to a crime scene. I hope the cat escaped as nature is very cruel and many times the hunter becomes the hunted and vice-versa.

This road was on the main street leading to the “Mall” and the “Ridge”, two of Shimla’s prime tourist and shopping localities. As it was early morning the street was deserted and hence no disturbances barring the bark of the dog which aroused my interest and later the bizarre and cruel drama of nature at its worst and best.

Update added later: Here are two photos of the cat. The first one is when approached by the macaque monkey:

The next is of the cat in a different position:

Here are some more photos:

Note from Michael: the cat is probably a leopard cat. They are widespread in India and good survivors being very adaptable. The leopard cat is the wild cat ancestor of the Bengal cat.

Update after seeing the pictures of the cat just added: This is not a leopard cat. My initial assessment is that this is a Jungle cat – if this cat is a small wild cat. The coat is like the purebred Abyssinian cat: ticked and the tail has bands (tabby marking). Shimla is certainly within the distribution of the jungle cat. The plain coat very much indicates this species of small wild cat.

Is this cat wearing a collar, or am I seeing something that is not there?