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Order : CARNIVORA
Family : Viverridae
Species : Viverra zibetha
Head-body length : up to 85 cm
Tail length : up to 46 cm
Weight : up to 9 kg
The Large Indian Civet inhabits a wide range of
forest types including secondary forest and forest/agricultural mosaic. It
occurs at elevations of up to 3000 metres in parts of India.
It is mainly terrestrial in habits, but can climb sturdy trees, and is
almost exclusively nocturnal. It preys upon a wide range of small
invertebrates such as lizards, birds and mammals, and invertebrates such as
insects, scorpions and crabs. It will also consume food scraps and some
fruits.
This is one of the largest civets in Southeast Asia, and it can be
identified by examination of the tail and throat area: the tail bears five
or six black bands which are at their broadest on top, and which taper
beneath the tail, and the throat bears three bold black collars, separated
by white.
A black stripe extends along its back but does not extend onto the tail:
this includes a crest of dark, erectile hairs. Its flanks and legs are
mottled greyish or brownish with vague, narrow stripes. Its legs become
progressively darker towards the feet.
This species can be distinguished from the similar, but smaller,
Malay Civet Viverra tangalunga as it
possesses fewer dark rings on the tail (i.e. 5 or 6, as opposed to 15 or so
in the latter).
The most recent summary of the range of this impressive civet by IUCN
(Timmins et al, 2016) confirms its continued presence in northern India,
Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and many southerly provinces of China. In
Southeast Asia it occurs in Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam and
Peninsular Malaysia. Its existence in Singapore (and its status as a native
species) appears doubtful.
Figs 1 and 2: Adult specimen with typical patterning from Kaeng Krachan
National Park, Thailand. Image courtesy Tontantravel.
References : M5
Timmins, R.J., Duckworth, J.W., Chutipong, W., Ghimirey, Y., Willcox,
D.H.A., Rahman, H., Long, B. & Choudhury, A. (2016). Viverra
zibetha. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.
< http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/41709/0> (Accessed 26 September 2017).
Image attribution :
Figs 1 and 2: "Large Indian Civet, Viverra zibetha in Kaeng Krachan national
park.jpg"by Tontantravel is licensed under
CC-BY-SA-2.0.
www.tontantravel.com
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