Paradoxuruspalm civets

Di­ver­sity

Para­dox­u­rus is a genus of three species of palm civets na­tive to Asia. Some dis­tinct fea­tures of the genus are they have a broad head with a nar­row muz­zle, large rounded ears, and a tail that is usu­ally as long as their head and body com­bined. (Blan­ford, 1885; Dhun­gel and Edge, 1985; Tanom­tong, et al., 2005; Veron, et al., 2015)

Ge­o­graphic Range

Mem­bers of the genus Para­dox­u­rus can be found through­out South­east Asia. The most wide­spread species is the Asian palm civet (Para­dox­u­rus her­maph­ro­di­tus), which has pop­u­la­tions span­ning from Pak­istan and India to as far east as the Philip­pines. The other two species, the brown palm civet (Para­dox­u­rus jer­doni) and the golden palm civet (Para­dox­u­rus zey­lo­nen­sis), oc­cupy more spe­cific ranges within the West­ern Ghats moun­tain range of West India and the is­land na­tion of Sri Lanka re­spec­tively. (Blan­ford, 1885; Dhun­gel and Edge, 1985; Groves, et al., 2009; Patou, et al., 2010)

Habi­tat

De­spite hav­ing few species, Para­dox­u­rus can be found in a va­ri­ety of habi­tats. Over­all, mem­bers of Para­dox­u­rus are ar­bo­real and pre­fer areas with dense fo­liage for se­cluded shel­ter. They also tend to choose wher­ever food is most abun­dant, pick­ing fruit trees to call home. While their most com­mon habi­tat is tem­per­ate and trop­i­cal forests, Asian palm civets and brown palm civets have been found to take shel­ter in hu­man-de­vel­oped places, such as parks, gar­dens, or plan­ta­tions. The golden palm civet, being en­demic to an is­land, in­hab­its all of the vary­ing re­gions that make the is­land up. They can be found in the dry scrub­lands to the rainy high­lands. (Bar­tels, 1964; Blan­ford, 1885; Dhun­gel and Edge, 1985; Patou, et al., 2010; Pocock, 1934)

Sys­tem­atic and Tax­o­nomic His­tory

The genus Para­dox­u­rus is part of the sub­fam­ily Para­dox­uri­nae. The other genuses in­clude Arc­tic­tis, Paguma, and Arc­to­ga­lidia. Para­dox­uri­nae is part of the fam­ily Viver­ri­dae which house other civets, genets and oyans. Within the genus there are only three cur­rently de­scribed species. The first two are Para­dox­u­rus her­maph­ro­di­tus and Para­dox­u­rus jer­doni. The third species, Para­dox­u­rus zey­lone­n­e­sis, was at one point pro­posed to be three dif­fer­ent species, but later re­search found there was too low ge­netic di­ver­sity to sup­port this. (Blan­ford, 1885; Groves, et al., 2009; Patou, et al., 2010; Tanom­tong, et al., 2005; Veron, et al., 2015)

Phys­i­cal De­scrip­tion

Mem­bers of the Para­dox­u­rus genus tend to be small, rang­ing from 1 to 3.5 kg and an av­er­age body length of 50 cm and a tail length of an ad­di­tional 40 cm. They have pointed snouts and elon­gated heads. They have black, gray, or brown coats, al­though this de­pends on the species. Brown palm civets will have light or dark brown fur while the golden palm civet has a golden shade to its coat. Only com­mon palm civets will be black and gray. They are also the only species in Para­dox­u­rus to have bands of white fur on their face sim­i­lar to other species of civets in other fam­i­lies. Palm civets have feet well-adapted for their ar­bo­real en­vi­ron­ment. They have naked soles, a re­duced first digit on both sets of feet, and trac­tion pads on their hind feet. There are very few dis­tin­guish­ing fea­tures be­tween males and fe­males, but fe­males do have two to three pairs of ab­dom­i­nal mam­mae and males pos­sess a bac­u­lum, or penis bone. (Bar­tels, 1964; Blan­ford, 1885; Miller, 1913; Pocock, 1934)

  • Sexual Dimorphism
  • sexes alike

Re­pro­duc­tion

All mem­bers of the genus Para­dox­u­rus are noc­tur­nal and avoid hu­mans often, so very lit­tle is known about the species’ mat­ing sys­tems. Palm civets are soli­tary most of the time and only come to­gether for one to fif­teen days to mate. They usu­ally choose hol­lowed out trees to give birth and raise young in. (Blan­ford, 1885; Dhun­gel and Edge, 1985)

Palm civets will breed year round and will likely mate mul­ti­ple times in a year. Their ges­ta­tion pe­riod is be­tween 60 and 90 days de­pend­ing on the species, but all mem­bers give birth to two to five kit­tens per lit­ter, usu­ally twice a year. The kit­tens are born blind, but with hair, only weigh­ing about 80 grams. In about two weeks, their eyes will open and they will be fully weaned by two months. Palm civets aren’t sex­u­ally ma­ture until a year after birth. (Blan­ford, 1885; Dhun­gel and Edge, 1985; Miller, 1913; Pocock, 1934)

Palm civets are al­tri­cial and need their par­ents’ care for a time after birth. There is very lit­tle in­for­ma­tion on how palm civets raise their off­spring since the young do not leave the tree for the first two months of being weaned. Fe­males most likely carry the bulk of the in­vest­ment, being in charge of pro­vid­ing nour­ish­ment both be­fore and after wean­ing. (Bar­tels, 1964; Dhun­gel and Edge, 1985; Pocock, 1934)

Lifes­pan/Longevity

While other mem­bers of the Viver­ri­dae fam­ily usu­ally live to be 5-15 years old in the wild, com­mon palm civets have been known to live on av­er­age 15-20 years and even longer in cap­tiv­ity. Golden and brown palm civets on the other hand usu­ally live around 10 years in the wild. (Blan­ford, 1885; Dhun­gel and Edge, 1985; Pocock, 1934)

Be­hav­ior

All three species of palm civets are noc­tur­nal, ar­bo­real, and soli­tary out­side of mat­ing sea­sons. They are usu­ally only ac­tive at night, awak­en­ing at dusk and try­ing to find a place to rest be­fore dawn. The brown palm civet has been recorded using the nests of In­dian giant squir­rels (Rat­ufa in­dica) as day-beds. It has also been ob­served that palm civets like darker nights more. Dur­ing this time, they search for food. If an area has plenty of food, then a palm civet will tend to stay in one spot. Only if food be­gins to run out will a palm civet travel into a neigh­bor­ing civet’s ter­ri­tory. Males are usu­ally more ac­tive than fe­males and can travel fur­ther in a day. While they are skilled climbers, they are not par­tic­u­larly agile and move slower than other tree-dwelling an­i­mals. If cor­nered, some species have been known to fight and re­lease a pun­gent chem­i­cal from their anal scent gland as de­fense. (Blan­ford, 1885; Dhun­gel and Edge, 1985; Groves, et al., 2009; Miller, 1913; Pocock, 1934)

Com­mu­ni­ca­tion and Per­cep­tion

Palm civets rely on their scent glands more than sounds to com­mu­ni­cate. The only times palm civets are vocal are when they are being ag­i­tated. By com­bin­ing the se­cre­tions from their scent glands with urine and feces, palm civets will mark their ter­ri­to­ries with a scent mark­ing that is unique to the in­di­vid­ual. Civets will also spray this scent as self-de­fense against preda­tors or in­trud­ers to their ter­ri­tory. Males mark their sur­round­ings much more often than fe­males will. Males and fe­males have also been ob­served to use dif­fer­ent meth­ods of ap­pli­ca­tion for their scent mark­ings. Both sexes will se­crete their mix­ture onto the ground, but then males will wipe their hind legs in it and then rub the scent onto trees and rocks. Fe­males will drag their anus along the scent and spread it on the ground. (Dhun­gel and Edge, 1985; Patou, et al., 2010; Veron, et al., 2015)

Food Habits

Plant mat­ter makes up the bulk of the diets of the mem­bers in Para­dox­u­rus, but the an­i­mals are truly om­niv­o­rous, eat­ing what­ever be­comes avail­able to them at the mo­ment. Dif­fer­ent species will be more or less likely to ex­clu­sively seek out plants to eat over meat. Para­dox­u­rus jer­doni is one of the biggest her­bi­vores in the en­tire fam­ily of Viver­ri­dae for ex­am­ple. All species do have un­spe­cial­ized di­ges­tive sys­tems though and can change their diet with ease. The fruits that palm civets often pick from are figs, chiku, man­goes, cof­fee, guava, rambu­tan, pineap­ples, ba­nanas, car­damom, pa­payas, and pulpy berries. Their fa­vorite trees to feed from though are palm trees which gave them their com­mon name palm civet. Asian palm civets have also been found to feed on the sap and nec­tar of var­i­ous na­tive trees. When hunt­ing, palm civets will prey on small ro­dents, birds, rep­tiles, frogs, moths, in­sects, mil­li­pedes, cen­tipedes, arach­nids, crus­taceans, snails, shrews, worms, and eggs. Since palm civets are for­agers and will often move around to find food when­ever it’s scarce, they can often be found in urban areas such as gar­dens or plan­ta­tions look­ing for food. (Bar­tels, 1964; Dhun­gel and Edge, 1985; Mu­dappa, et al., 2010; Pocock, 1934)

Pre­da­tion

The main preda­tors of palm civets are the ones that are best suited to hunt an ar­bo­real and noc­tur­nal an­i­mal like the mem­bers of Para­dox­u­rus. Large cats, like tigers and leop­ards, and pythons are skilled at hunt­ing in the dark or in trees. Black ea­gles are also a preda­tor of Asian palm civets, able to fly into a tree and carry a civet away. (Bar­tels, 1964; Blan­ford, 1885; Dhun­gel and Edge, 1985; Miller, 1913; Pocock, 1934)

Ecosys­tem Roles

The main role palm civets play in their ecosys­tem is the dis­per­sal of seeds. Since viver­rids eat fruit as most of their diet, they are often con­sid­ered one of the most im­por­tant dis­persers of seed across the forests of Asia. As the palm civets move around their en­vi­ron­ment, they will pass the seeds in their feces sev­eral hun­dred me­ters from their tree of ori­gin. The feces also al­lows for the seed to quickly be fer­til­ized and begin grow­ing. Forests be­come more and more frag­mented due to human ac­tiv­ity, palm civets are cru­cial in re­con­nect­ing these patches through their seed dis­per­sal. (Bar­tels, 1964; Dhun­gel and Edge, 1985; Groves, et al., 2009; Mu­dappa, et al., 2010)

  • Ecosystem Impact
  • disperses seeds
Mu­tu­al­ist Species
  • Pinanga kuh­lii
  • Pinanga za­vana

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Pos­i­tive

The ear­li­est use hu­mans had for palm civets was to use their sweet-smelling musk to con­ceal the smell of sca­bies, but now that musk is sold as a per­fume. Peo­ple have also kept palm civets as rat­catch­ers since they have been known to eat ro­dents in the wild. Some uses for cer­tain species in­clude golden palm civets being used to study ra­bies and help con­trol the dis­ease in Sri Lanka and Asian palm civets aid­ing in the pro­duc­tion of one of the world’s most ex­pen­sive cof­fees. Kopi luwak is made from the pits of cof­fee cher­ries that the civets eat and sells for over $100/lb. Civets tend to only pick the best and ripest cof­fee cher­ries and the pit gains a unique fla­vor after being passed through their di­ges­tion sys­tem. (Blan­ford, 1885; Groves, et al., 2009; Mu­dappa, et al., 2010; Pocock, 1934)

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Neg­a­tive

The most com­mon prob­lem palm civets cause for hu­mans is when they raid plan­ta­tions for fruit. Their abil­ity to con­sume a wide va­ri­ety of fruits and dis­perse their seeds also threat­ens to in­tro­duce new species into the ecosys­tem. Palm civets are also very noisy at night and can be quite a nui­sance if they de­cide to nest in an area pop­u­lated by hu­mans. Golden palm civets are also a pos­si­ble car­rier of ra­bies in Sri Lanka, pos­ing a threat to hu­mans and do­mes­ti­cated an­i­mals. (Blan­ford, 1885; Dhun­gel and Edge, 1985; Mu­dappa, et al., 2010; Pocock, 1934)

Con­ser­va­tion Sta­tus

All three species within Para­dox­u­rus are con­sid­ered a species of Least Con­cern ac­cord­ing to the IUCN Red List. They are highly adapt­able and can be found in large num­bers through­out areas that have been dis­turbed and frag­mented. Most palm civets are quite elu­sive, so it’s hard to get a good un­der­stand­ing of their pop­u­la­tion num­bers. Al­though they are cur­rently nowhere near the threat of ex­tinc­tion, palm civets do face some dan­gers in the fu­ture if left unchecked. In­creas­ing amounts of over-log­ging are shrink­ing the for­est most civets call home. Palm civets also are often hunted to re­duce their ef­fect on crop pro­duc­tion. Ad­di­tion­ally, the ra­bies dis­ease in golden palm civets will be fatal to them if left un­treated and they are often hunted in an ef­fort to pre­vent the dis­ease from spread­ing more. (Groves, et al., 2009; Mu­dappa, et al., 2010; Patou, et al., 2010; Veron, et al., 2015)

  • IUCN Red List [Link]
    Not Evaluated

Con­trib­u­tors

Jonas Cox (au­thor), Col­orado State Uni­ver­sity, Au­drey Bow­man (ed­i­tor), Col­orado State Uni­ver­sity.

Glossary

Palearctic

living in the northern part of the Old World. In otherwords, Europe and Asia and northern Africa.

World Map

acoustic

uses sound to communicate

altricial

young are born in a relatively underdeveloped state; they are unable to feed or care for themselves or locomote independently for a period of time after birth/hatching. In birds, naked and helpless after hatching.

arboreal

Referring to an animal that lives in trees; tree-climbing.

bilateral symmetry

having body symmetry such that the animal can be divided in one plane into two mirror-image halves. Animals with bilateral symmetry have dorsal and ventral sides, as well as anterior and posterior ends. Synapomorphy of the Bilateria.

carnivore

an animal that mainly eats meat

causes or carries domestic animal disease

either directly causes, or indirectly transmits, a disease to a domestic animal

chemical

uses smells or other chemicals to communicate

drug

a substance used for the diagnosis, cure, mitigation, treatment, or prevention of disease

endothermic

animals that use metabolically generated heat to regulate body temperature independently of ambient temperature. Endothermy is a synapomorphy of the Mammalia, although it may have arisen in a (now extinct) synapsid ancestor; the fossil record does not distinguish these possibilities. Convergent in birds.

female parental care

parental care is carried out by females

folivore

an animal that mainly eats leaves.

food

A substance that provides both nutrients and energy to a living thing.

forest

forest biomes are dominated by trees, otherwise forest biomes can vary widely in amount of precipitation and seasonality.

frugivore

an animal that mainly eats fruit

granivore

an animal that mainly eats seeds

herbivore

An animal that eats mainly plants or parts of plants.

insectivore

An animal that eats mainly insects or spiders.

iteroparous

offspring are produced in more than one group (litters, clutches, etc.) and across multiple seasons (or other periods hospitable to reproduction). Iteroparous animals must, by definition, survive over multiple seasons (or periodic condition changes).

molluscivore

eats mollusks, members of Phylum Mollusca

motile

having the capacity to move from one place to another.

mountains

This terrestrial biome includes summits of high mountains, either without vegetation or covered by low, tundra-like vegetation.

native range

the area in which the animal is naturally found, the region in which it is endemic.

nectarivore

an animal that mainly eats nectar from flowers

nocturnal

active during the night

omnivore

an animal that mainly eats all kinds of things, including plants and animals

oriental

found in the oriental region of the world. In other words, India and southeast Asia.

World Map

rainforest

rainforests, both temperate and tropical, are dominated by trees often forming a closed canopy with little light reaching the ground. Epiphytes and climbing plants are also abundant. Precipitation is typically not limiting, but may be somewhat seasonal.

scent marks

communicates by producing scents from special gland(s) and placing them on a surface whether others can smell or taste them

scrub forest

scrub forests develop in areas that experience dry seasons.

sedentary

remains in the same area

sexual

reproduction that includes combining the genetic contribution of two individuals, a male and a female

solitary

lives alone

suburban

living in residential areas on the outskirts of large cities or towns.

tactile

uses touch to communicate

terrestrial

Living on the ground.

tropical

the region of the earth that surrounds the equator, from 23.5 degrees north to 23.5 degrees south.

tropical savanna and grassland

A terrestrial biome. Savannas are grasslands with scattered individual trees that do not form a closed canopy. Extensive savannas are found in parts of subtropical and tropical Africa and South America, and in Australia.

savanna

A grassland with scattered trees or scattered clumps of trees, a type of community intermediate between grassland and forest. See also Tropical savanna and grassland biome.

temperate grassland

A terrestrial biome found in temperate latitudes (>23.5° N or S latitude). Vegetation is made up mostly of grasses, the height and species diversity of which depend largely on the amount of moisture available. Fire and grazing are important in the long-term maintenance of grasslands.

urban

living in cities and large towns, landscapes dominated by human structures and activity.

visual

uses sight to communicate

viviparous

reproduction in which fertilization and development take place within the female body and the developing embryo derives nourishment from the female.

year-round breeding

breeding takes place throughout the year

Ref­er­ences

Bar­tels, E. 1964. On Para­dox­u­rus her­maph­ro­di­tus ja­van­i­cus (Hors­field, 1824). The com­mon palm civet or tody cat in West­ern Java. Notes on its food and feed­ing habits. Its eco­log­i­cal im­por­tance for wood and rural biotopes.. Beau­for­tia, 10/124: 193-201.

Blan­ford, W. 1885. A Mono­graph of the Genus Para­dox­u­rus, F. Cuv.. Pro­ceed­ings of the Zo­o­log­i­cal So­ci­ety, 1885: 780-808.

Dhun­gel, S., W. Edge. 1985. Notes on the nat­ural his­tory of Para­dox­u­rus her­maph­ro­di­tus.. Mam­malia, 49/2: 302-303.

Groves, C., C. Ra­japak­sha, K. Mane­man­dra-Arachchi. 2009. The tax­on­omy of the en­demic golden palm civet of Sri Lanka.. Zo­o­log­i­cal Jour­nal of the Lin­nean So­ci­ety, 155/1: 238-251.

Miller, G. 1913. Fifty-one new Malayan Mam­mals.. Smith­son­ian In­sti­tu­tion Mis­cel­la­neous Col­lec­tion, 61/21: 1-30.

Mu­dappa, D., A. Kumar, R. Chel­lam. 2010. Diet and fruit choice of the brown palm civet Para­dox­u­rus jer­doni, a viver­rid en­demic to the West­ern Ghats rain­for­est, India.. Trop­i­cal Con­ser­va­tion Sci­ence, 3/3: 282-300. Ac­cessed Feb­ru­ary 06, 2022 at http://​tropicalconservationscience.​mongabay.​com/​content/​v3/​10-09-27_​toc.​html.

Patou, M., A. Wilt­ing, P. Gaubert, J. Es­sel­styn, C. Cru­aud, A. Jen­nings, J. Fickel, G. Veron. 2010. Evo­lu­tion­ary his­tory of the Para­dox­u­rus palm civets - a new model for Asian bio­geog­ra­phy. Jour­nal of Bio­geog­ra­phy, 37/11: 2077-2097.

Pocock, R. 1934. The Palm Civets or " Toddy Cats " of the gen­era Para­dox­u­rus and Pagutna in­hab­it­ing British India. Pts. ii, iii.. Jour­nal of the Bom­bay Nat­ural His­tory So­ci­ety, 37: 172-192.

Tanom­tong, A., A. Chaveer­ach, A. Sriphoom, R. Bun­jon­rat. 2005. Cy­to­ge­netic study on wild an­i­mal species of the sub­fam­ily Para­dox­uri­nae in Thai­land.. Cy­tolo­gia (Tokyo), 70/3: 249-255.

Veron, G., M. Patou, M. Toth, M. Goonati­lake, A. Jen­nings. 2015. How many species of Para­dox­u­rus civets are there? New in­sights from India and Sri Lanka. Jour­nal of Zo­o­log­i­cal Sys­tem­at­ics and Evo­lu­tion­ary Re­search, 53/2: 161-174.