On the April 30, 2017, our new organisation Small Cat Advocacy and Research (SCAR) held it’s first field workshop. It was organised by Nature Beyond the Horizon, the Environment Society of the Horizon Campus. The field workshop followed a lecture given by Ashan a few weeks earlier at the Campus itself, and was held at our study site – the Thalawathugoda Biodiversity Study Park.
After a quick overview of Sri Lanka’s three small wild cat species, the seventeen eager participants, along with 4 volunteers from the Young Zoologist Association and the University of Kelaniya were introduced to the fine art of fishing cat conservation, before being taken out in the field to put what they learned into practice. After breaking up into two teams, the students were given the opportunity to set up camera traps and trap cages, as well as look for signs of fishing cat presence.
A big thank you to Ashan and Horizon Campus for some of the photographs and video.
