On 1^st July 1993, I took up my position in a hide near a game path at around 06.30pm in Kumbhalgarh forest near Udaipur.

At 08.15pm, a Jungle Cat started calling about 20m from the right flank of my hide. The call resembled ‘Aaa-Ooo’ which means ‘Come’ in Hindi. The second call was louder with a slight resonance. The interval between two calls was about one minute.

The cat called for half an hour and then stopped calling. I remained in the hide till 11pm.

Next night I took up my position in the same hide at 06.30pm. The cat started calling at 08.30pm from the same position. It called for about 20 minutes.

Its call was then answered by another cat about 150m away from my left side. The other cat started advancing towards the first one. Both of them were calling alternately. The second cat was advancing slowly.

After 18 minutes the second cat reached near my hide but the first one remained where it was. Instead of coming in front of my hide the cat went around the back.

When the cat was about 5m from my hide its tempting call got the better of me. Instead of waiting to see further I slowly came out of my hide, turned and switched on my night lamp to see it. The disturbance was too much for such a quite atmosphere.

The cat got suspicious. When I put on my lamp it crouched for a moment and then with a harsh sound like ‘kharr’ it dashed away and disappeared from my sight. It was a male jungle cat. I remained in the hide till 11pm but heard no more calls of the cats.

If the calls were a challenge then the first cat should have moved towards the second one at least a few meters to accept it. Therefore I concluded that it was a mating call and the first cat was a female.

Published in Cheetal (Journal of Wildlife Preservation Society of India):

Tehsin, R. (1994) Mating Call Of Jungle Cat (Felis chaus) Cheetal 33(3-4): 65