Alfie the fishing cat came back from 5 kilos and a broken jaw — now he is wild again, wearing a satellite collar

In February, Bangladesh Forest Department rescuers found Alfie, a male fishing cat, in northern Bangladesh: just 5 kilograms, with a severe jaw injury that left him unable to feed properly. At the Jankichara Wildlife Rescue and Rehabilitation Centre, the Creative Conservation Alliance team nursed him back past 12 kilograms. Then came the careful part: eight weeks in a soft-release enclosure inside the Ootterbhag and Indanugger Tea Estate, learning the wetlands he would live in, before keepers fitted a 200-gram satellite collar — under 2% of his body weight — and opened the gate. Fishing cats are often released with no follow-up at all; Alfie's collar means researchers will finally learn how a rescued cat makes its life among tea gardens and wetlands.

SDG 15 · Life on land — Mechanism: institutional program