Endangered baby cats were found abandoned under a durian tree in southern Thailand.

Sittichai Shamnan, 39, was cutting grass in the orchard when he discovered the pair of fluffy kittens resting near a durian tree in Phang Nga province on October 9.

Concerned Sittichai brought the wild cats home and contacted the forest rangers to pick them up.

He said: ‘I think maybe their mother must have left them under the tree. They looked small and weak. I was afraid they might starve to death.’

Excited villagers visited Sittichai’s home to look at the wild animals. He later found out from the locals that the kittens are fishing cats, an endangered, medium-sized furry feline listed on the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List.

Fishing cats are twice as big as domestic cats. They inhabit swamps and marshy areas around oxbow lakes, reed beds, tidal creeks, and mangrove forests. There are believed to be less than 10,000 fishing cats left in the world.