In 2017 we began monitoring small wild cat sightings throughout the country to get a better understanding about the local distribution of all three species. Alongside recording live sightings, we also started collecting location data for roadkill to identify roadkill hotspots along major road networks in Sri Lanka.
Live and roadkill records are collected through social media posts (local wildlife and environment groups), news articles (print and video), and through direct messages to the SCAR social media pages and project pages.
To gain more interest with the general public we turned this monitoring program into the citizen science program – save.cat. Through this project, the general public is able to take part in conservation efforts by easily recording their sightings, which are then automatically uploaded to our distribution map.
At the start of 2021, through this initiative we had already collected over 300 small wild cat sightings, and in 2020 we recorded 25 small wild cat deaths (roadkill, snaring and dog attacks).
