A wild cat hunts in Colombo.
Its wetlands are vanishing.
The fishing cat is the secret apex predator of Sri Lanka's capital, and as the city drains the marshes it depends on, it is running out of room to survive. We have a narrow window to change that.
Our work
Three fronts, one urgent goal: keep the fishing cat (and its wetlands) alive inside a growing city.
Awareness
We change how a city of millions sees the wetlands at its edges: from wasteland to be filled, into living infrastructure worth defending.
Education
From schoolrooms to municipal planners, we equip the people who share these marshes with the knowledge to live alongside a wild predator.
Research
GPS collars, camera traps, and night surveys turn an elusive cat into hard data: the evidence conservation policy is built on.
Meet the species
The terrestrial apex predator your city forgot it had.
Twice the size of a house cat, with partially webbed paws and a swimmer's body, the fishing cat dives for its dinner in the same canals Colombo's commuters cross each morning. Most residents will live their whole lives never knowing it is there.
- Status
- Endangered in Sri Lanka · Vulnerable globally (IUCN)
- Range
- Marshes, canals, and reed beds across Metropolitan Colombo
- Diet
- A master angler: fish, crustaceans, rodents, and birds
- Active
- Almost entirely nocturnal; rarely seen by the city it shares
Colombo's urban wetlands
When the wetlands go, the cat goes, and so does the city's flood defence.
These marshes are not empty land waiting to be developed. They are the lungs, kidneys, and sponge of Colombo. Drain them and you don't just lose a rare cat. You lose the system that keeps a coastal megacity above water.
of Metropolitan Colombo remains wetland today, and the figure is falling every year.
Flood control
The marshes temporarily store and slowly release stormwater: the single most effective defence Colombo has against the floods that paralyse the city.
Water quality
Silt-rich soils and dense vegetation filter the water, absorbing toxins, agricultural pesticides, and industrial waste before they reach homes.
Species diversity
252 plant and 277 animal species (dozens found nowhere else) share this habitat with the fishing cat at the heart of the food web.
From the field
Field Notes
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Urban Wildlife Series: Black-naped Hare (Lepus nigricollis singhala)
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Some roar, some purr: A purr-suit into the science of feline vocalizations
Cats, in all shapes and sizes, in all degrees of character, and in every perceivable habitat, represent an…
The people behind the project
"People protect what they know. Our job is to make a whole city fall for a cat it has never seen, before the wetlands that hide it are gone."
The window is closing
Every wetland we save tonight is one the fishing cat (and Colombo) still has tomorrow.
Your gift funds the camera traps, GPS collars, night surveys, and community work that turn an endangered ghost into a protected species. Small gifts, real ground.