Animal Diversity Web

Ge­o­graphic Range

Banded palm civets are found in the Ori­en­tal bio­geo­graphic re­gion, in Thai­land, Malaysia, In­done­sia and penin­su­lar Burma. (Wil­son and Reeder, 1993)

• Biogeographic Regions
• oriental
  • native

Habi­tat

Banded palm civets are partly ar­bo­real and pre­fer tall forests. They are noc­tur­nal and feed mainly on the ground at night, sleep­ing in holes in the ground or in trees dur­ing the day. Hemi­galus der­byanus are also known to for­age for prey in trees and near streams. (Bur­ton and Pear­son, 1987; Ducker, 1975)

• Habitat Regions
• tropical
• terrestrial

• Terrestrial Biomes
• forest
• rainforest

Phys­i­cal De­scrip­tion

Hemi­galus der­byanus are about the size of small do­mes­tic cats, with long slen­der bod­ies. This species ranges in length (nose to anus) from 46 to 53 cen­time­ters. They have gray-yel­low woolly hair with seven or eight cres­cent-shaped black mark­ings on the dor­sal side and black rings around their tails, which vary from 25 to 38 cen­time­ters in length. Par­tially re­tractable claws and pow­er­ful feet allow banded palm civets to be very able climbers, and long ta­pered snouts as­sist in their feed­ing habits. They have 40 teeth with a den­tal pat­tern 3/3;1/1;4/4;2/2 com­mon to most mem­bers of the Viver­ri­dae. Their mo­lars are tritu­ber­cu­lar. Both males and fe­males of the species pos­sess ves­ti­gial anal glands. Un­der­parts of the body are lighter than the dor­sal side, and the pelage in the dor­sal neck re­gion is re­versed and points for­ward. (Bur­ton and Pear­son, 1987; Ducker, 1975; Kowal­czyk, 1989; Lek­agul and Mc­Neely, 1977)

• Other Physical Features
• endothermic
• bilateral symmetry

• Sexual Dimorphism
• sexes alike

• Range mass

  1.0 to 3.0 kg

  2.20 to 6.61 lb

• Range length

  46 to 53 cm

  18.11 to 20.87 in

Re­pro­duc­tion

Very lit­tle is known about the mat­ing sys­tems of banded palm civets as they tend to be reclu­sive and have low re­pro­duc­tion suc­cess in cap­tiv­ity. (Kowal­czyk, 1989)

Of banded palm civets ob­served in cap­tiv­ity, very few have given birth, thus there is a small sam­ple size from which to gen­er­al­ize. The fe­males' es­trus cycle is not eas­ily iden­ti­fi­able, but sci­en­tists hy­poth­e­size that they may be sea­son­ally polyestrus or gen­er­ally polyestrus through­out the year with a 4 to 7 day cycle. Banded palm civets in cap­tiv­ity do not con­struct nests and give birth to 1 or 2 young, which weigh about 125 grams. They open their eyes after 8 to 12 days and nurse for about 70 days be­fore eat­ing solid food. In the fam­ily Viver­ri­dae, of which Hemi­galus der­byanus is a mem­ber, there are gen­er­ally two lit­ters per year, one in the spring and one in the fall. The ges­ta­tion pe­riod ranges from 32 to 64 days among all of the species of this fam­ily. ("Hemi­galus der­byanus", 1997; Kowal­czyk, 1989)

• Key Reproductive Features
• seasonal breeding
• year-round breeding
• gonochoric/gonochoristic/dioecious (sexes separate)
• sexual
• viviparous

• Breeding interval

  The breeding interval of banded palm civets is unknown.

• Breeding season

  The breeding season is unknown.

• Average number of offspring

  1 to 2

• Average number of offspring

  2

  AnAge

• Average weaning age

  70 days

Al­though lit­tle is known re­gard­ing the mat­ing habits of banded palm civets, the rel­a­tively long nurs­ing pe­riod of the fe­male (about 70 days) sug­gests that large amounts of en­ergy are re­quired and thus feed­ing must in­crease dur­ing the preg­nancy and fol­low­ing the birth of her young. Male con­tri­bu­tion is un­known. ("Hemi­galus der­byanus", 1997)

• Parental Investment
• altricial
• pre-weaning/fledging
  • provisioning
    • female

Lifes­pan/Longevity

Very lit­tle is known re­gard­ing the lifes­pan of Hemi­galus der­byanus in the wild. In cap­tiv­ity, in­di­vid­u­als 11 to 13 years old lacked all teeth, sug­gest­ing ad­vanced age. (Kowal­czyk, 1989)

• Average lifespan
  Status: captivity

  13 years

• Average lifespan
  Status: captivity

  12.0 years

  Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research

Be­hav­ior

Hemi­galus der­byanus is a soli­tary species, with males and fe­males as­so­ci­at­ing only for mat­ing. As is dis­cussed in the Com­mu­ni­ca­tion sec­tion, scent mark­ings play an im­por­tant role in ter­ri­to­r­ial and de­fen­sive com­mu­ni­ca­tion among in­di­vid­u­als. (Kowal­czyk, 1989)

• Key Behaviors
• arboreal
• terricolous
• nocturnal
• motile
• solitary
• territorial

Home Range

The home range of banded palm civets is un­known.

Com­mu­ni­ca­tion and Per­cep­tion

Banded palm civets ob­served in cap­tiv­ity have been known to com­mu­ni­cate through scent mark­ing, phys­i­cal in­ter­ac­tion and vo­cal­iza­tions. Both de­fen­sive and ter­ri­to­r­ial scent mark­ing have been ob­served in this species. So­cial be­hav­ior in­cludes groom­ing and pac­ing, and a keen sense of smell plays a role in iden­ti­fi­ca­tion among in­di­vid­u­als. Vocal com­mu­ni­ca­tion is preva­lent in cap­tiv­ity and in­cludes hiss­ing, spit­ting, coo­ing, whin­ing and growl­ing. (Kowal­czyk, 1989)

• Communication Channels
• tactile
• acoustic
• chemical

• Other Communication Modes
• scent marks

• Perception Channels
• tactile
• chemical

Food Habits

Banded palm civets are pri­mar­ily car­ni­vores, hunt­ing for prey in trees, near streams or on the for­est floor. Much of their diet con­sists of lo­custs and worms, but they also eat crus­taceans, aquatic and ter­res­trial snails, spi­ders, ants and frogs. In cap­tiv­ity, the species has been ob­served to eat fruit, in­clud­ing ba­nanas, but plant con­sump­tion is un­known in the wild. (Ducker, 1975; Kowal­czyk, 1989)

Hemi­galus der­byanus catches larger prey by bit­ing it at the back of the neck and then shak­ing it vi­o­lently. Their front paws help to grasp the prey while tear­ing and chew­ing it, and they swal­low with their heads tilted up­wards. Often, drink­ing pre­cedes and fol­lows eat­ing. (Kowal­czyk, 1989)

• Primary Diet
• carnivore
  • insectivore
  • vermivore

• Animal Foods
• amphibians
• insects
• terrestrial non-insect arthropods
• mollusks
• terrestrial worms
• aquatic crustaceans

Pre­da­tion

The preda­tors of banded palm civets have not been iden­ti­fied.

Ecosys­tem Roles

Ecosys­tem roles of Hemi­galus der­byanus have not been ex­plored. As small car­ni­vores, they might have some ef­fect on prey pop­u­la­tions. Also, as mam­mals that con­sume large num­bers of in­sects such as lo­custs, they might have some pos­i­tive im­pact on agri­cul­ture by re­duc­ing pest num­bers.

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Pos­i­tive

The eco­nomic im­por­tance of banded palm civets is rel­a­tively in­signif­i­cant, al­though some mem­bers of the Viver­ri­dae fam­ily are trapped or bred in cap­tiv­ity to pro­cure their civet, a po­tent fluid ob­tained from the anal glands which is often used in per­fumes.

• Positive Impacts
• body parts are source of valuable material

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Neg­a­tive

In­for­ma­tion on the neg­a­tive im­pact of Hemi­galus der­byanus is not avail­able.

Con­ser­va­tion Sta­tus

This species is not listed as threat­ened or en­dan­gered on any of­fi­cial sites, but re­cent re­search sug­gests that banded palm civets are in­creas­ingly rare in their na­tive habi­tats and de­creas­ing in num­bers due to de­for­esta­tion and habi­tat loss. (Lek­agul and Mc­Neely, 1977)

• IUCN Red List

  Vulnerable
  More information

• IUCN Red List

  Vulnerable
  More information

• US Federal List

  No special status

• CITES

  Appendix II

Con­trib­u­tors

Matthew Wund (ed­i­tor), Uni­ver­sity of Michi­gan-Ann Arbor.

Kari San­toro (au­thor), Uni­ver­sity of Michi­gan-Ann Arbor, Phil Myers (ed­i­tor, in­struc­tor), Mu­seum of Zo­ol­ogy, Uni­ver­sity of Michi­gan-Ann Arbor.

Ref­er­ences

John Hop­kins Uni­ver­sity Press. 1997. "Hemi­galus der­byanus" (On-line). Walker's Mam­mals of the World On­line. Ac­cessed Feb­ru­ary 10, 2004 at http://​www.​press.​jhu.​edu/​books/​walkers_​mammals_​of_​the_​world/​carnivora/​carnivora.​viverridae.​hemigalus.​html.

Bur­ton, J., B. Pear­son. 1987. The Collins Guide to the Rare Mam­mals of the World. Lex­ing­ton, MA: Stephen Greene Press.

Ducker, G. 1975. Viver­rids and Aard­wolves. Pp. 144-184 in B Grz­imek, ed. Grz­imek's An­i­mal Life En­cy­clo­pe­dia, Vol. Vol­ume 12; Mam­mals III, 1st Edi­tion. New York: Van Nos­trand Rein­hold Com­pany.

Kowal­czyk, C. 1989. Be­hav­ioral ob­ser­va­tions of the banded palm civet (Hemi­galus der­byanus) in cap­tiv­ity. Zo­ol­o­gis­che Garten, 59 (4): 264-274.

Lek­agul, B., J. Mc­Neely. 1977. Mam­mals of Thai­land. Ku­rusapha Lad­prao: As­so­ci­a­tion for the Con­ser­va­tion of Wildlife.

Wil­son, D., D. Reeder. 1993. Mam­mal Species of the World: A Tax­o­nomic and Ge­o­graphic Ref­er­ence. Wash­ing­ton and Lon­don: Smith­son­ian In­sti­tu­tion Press.