Asian Common Palm Civets (Paradoxurus hermaphroditus): Non-Ringtails of South and Southeast Asia

Binomial (“two-name”) classification accounts for the Asian common palm civet’s genus - species taxonomy as Paradoxurus hermaphroditus. Trinomial (“three-name”) nomenclature acknowledges insular, mainland, and peninsular homeland-based subspecies. The first specimen type to be described, the nominate (“first-named”), gets the species’ name repeated. P.h. hermaphroditus inhabits India (and Pakistan), per Peter Simon Pallas (September 22, 1741 – September 8, 1811) in 1777. Other India-specific subspecies include:

• P.h. bondar (Anselme Gaëtan Desmarest [March 6, 1784 – June 4, 1838], 1820);
• nictitatans (Edward Burnett Taylor [October 2, 1832 – January 2, 1917], 1891);
• pallasii of Bhutan, China, India, Myanmar, Nepal (John Edward Gray [February 12, 1800 – March 7, 1875], 1832);
• scindiae and vellerosus (Reginald Innes Pocock [March 4, 1863 – August 9, 1947], 1934). 

Indonesia claims:

• balicus (Henri Jacob Sody [August 31, 1892 – January 16, 1959], 1933);
• canescens (Marcus Ward Lyon [February 5, 1875 – May 19, 1942], 1907), enganus (1916);
• javanica (Thomas Horsfield [May 12, 1773 – July 14, 1859], 1824);
• kangeanus (Oldfield Thomas [February 21, 1858 – June 16, 1929], 1910);
• lignicolor, parvus, simplex (Gerrit Smith Miller [December 6, 1869 – February 24, 1956], 1913);
• setosus (Honoré Jacquinot [August 1, 1815 - 1887] and Jacques Pucheran [June 2, 1817 – January 13, 1894], 1853).

The republic co-hosts:

• musanga (Thomas Stamford Raffles [July 6, 1781 – July 5, 1826], 1821) with Malaysia;
• philippinensis (Antoine Jacques Jourdan [1788 - 1859], 1837) with Brunei, Malaysia, Philippines;
• sumbanus (Ernst Schwarz [December 1, 1889 - 1962], 1910) with East Timor. 

Myanmar constitutes another of the top Asian common palm civet native lands, with:

• milleri (Cecil Boden Kloss (March 28, 1877 – August 19, 1949), 1908);
• pallens, pugnax, pulcher, sacer, senex (Gerrit Smith Miller [December 6, 1869 – February 24, 1956], 1913).

The republic harbors:

• laotum (August Louis Gyldenstolpe [July 22, 1849 – June 30, 1928], 1917) with China, Laos, Thailand, Vietnam;
• minor (John Lewis Bonhote [June 13, 1875 – October 10, 1922], 1903) with Malaysia, Thailand.

China hosts:

• dongfangensis (Gordon Barclay Corbet [born 1933] and John Edwards Hill [June 11, 1928 - 1997], 1992);
• exitus (Ernst Schwarz [December 1, 1889 - 1962], 1911).

Cambodia and Vietnam perpetuate cochinensis (Ernst Schwarz [December 1, 1889 - 1962], 1911). Thailand shelters canus (Miller, 1913).

Subtleties of color and dimension differentiate subspecies. Biology and taxonomy notwithstanding, they all claim elongated bodies with:

• Brown, grey, tan, white, yellow coarse, shaggy coats black-tipped by guard-hairs;
• Compact muscles;
• Darkened paws;
• Hairless soles;
• Semi-fused third/fourth toes;
• Short limbs;
• 3 black-spotted rows per flank;
• 20 semi-retractile claws.

Little heads commit to super-vigilance with:

• Blackened, large, rounded, wide-spaced ears;
• Camouflage-savvy faces blackened and whitened across foreheads, alongside nostrils, and under big-, dark-adapted eyes (equi-distanced from dark striping running from nasal bridge to shoulder blades);
• Darkened, sculpted cheeks and muzzles;
• Pointed, sharp dentition of 12 incisors, 4 canines, 16 premolars, 8 molars;
• Super-sensory vibrissae (whiskers) atypically whitened from base to tip.  

Long tails remain undecorated other than darkened tips. 

Appearance, bio-geography, and comportment account for individual survival and population sustainability in optimal native niches and sub-optimal native and naturalized habitats. Asian common palm civets historically choose dense-canopy, primary-growth, vine-shrouded jungles and rainforests for:

• Avoiding predatory mammals, raptors, and reptiles;
• Consuming berries, fruits (especially apples, bananas, chiku, coffee, figs, mangos, melons, oranges, palms, pineapples, rambutan), sap, and seeds;
• Denning in arboreal holes and hollows or terrestrial crevices and fissures;
• Foraging for arthropods, eggs, and small amphibians, birds, mammals and reptiles;
• Organizing amidst towering evergreens overlapping home and territorial ranges of 0.77 square miles (2 square kilometers) per female and 6.67 square miles (17+ square kilometers) per male.  

But they know when to practice adaptability, antagonism, or avoidance. 

Asian common palm civets center behaviors upon olfactory, tactile, and visual information-sharing. They employ vocalizations for alarm or attack. They fight bravely but rarely. They modify bio-geography and biology by:

• Abandoning elusive, reclusive escape-artistry;
• Redefining habitability.

They opt for:

• Altitudes up to 7,874.02 feet (2,400 meters) above sea level;
• Deciduous, evergreen, semi-evergreen forests of scrub vegetation, secondary growth, and selective logging;
• Disturbed fragments near farming villages and palm-oil plantations.

They prioritize:

• Delivering 2 – 5 offspring bi-annually for seeing within 14 days and weaning within 90;
• Maturing head-and-body lengths, tail lengths, and weights respectively to 16.93 – 27.95 inches (43.2 – 71 centimeters), 15.98 – 25.98 inches (40.6 – 66 centimeters), and 3 – 11 pounds (1.36 – 4.99 kilograms);
• Surviving 5 – 20+ years. 

Savvy adjustment to real-time best describes Asian common palm civet life cycles and natural histories. It explains their surviving:

• Beating, maiming, and slaughtering for homelessly, hungrily raiding poultry;
• Exporting to Japan;
• Resettling in Indonesia to suffer forced-feeding of coffee beans and forced-scraping of scent glands;
• Trapping by agro-industrialists and over-hunters.

Diminutive Asian common palm civets indeed express courage and environmentalism while experiencing unregulated modernist - traditionalist interactions along urban - wildland interfaces. They keep on:

• Ambling bear-like and flat-footed over land and branch-by-branch through trees;
• Fulfilling environmentally obligate pest-controlling, seed-dispersing roles;
• Rotating nomadically through wide-spaced series of permanent dens occupied singly except during offspring-raising.

Their stories need to be told and perpetuated through:

• Governmental protection;
• Scientific investigation;
• Wildlife-loving activism. 

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Asian Common Palm Civet subspecies ~ Paradoxurus pallassii
John Edward Gray, Illustrations of Indian Zoology, Vol. II (1833-1834), Plate 8: Public Domain Mark 1.0, via Internet Archive @ https://archive.org/details/IllustrationsOfIndianZoology2/page/n24/mode/1up

Asian Common Palm Civet's subspecies: Paradoxurus hermaphroditus quadriscriptus
Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London: Illustrations 1848-1860, Vol. I-Mammalia, Plate XLVIII: Public Domain, via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/37028003

J.E. Gray, Illustrations of Indian Zoology; Chiefly Selected From the Collection of Major-General Hardwicke, Vol. II (1833-1834), Plate 12: Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Paradoxurus_hermaphroditus_bondar_2_Hardwicke.jpg

Distribution data from IUCN Red List: Chermundy/IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, species assessors and the authors of the spatial data, CC BY SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Asian_Palm_Civet_area.png

Asian Common Palm Civet (Paradoxurus hermaphroditus) under synonym of Paradoxurus strictus, Hodgson
Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London. Illustrations 1848-1860, Vol. I Mammalia Plates I-LXXXIII, Plate XLVII: Biodiversity Heritage Library (BioDivLibrary), Public Domain, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/biodivlibrary/7629983506/

Asian palm civet: Jordy Meow (JordyMeow), CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Luwak.jpg

Asian Palm Civet with pups
night wildlife watching in Baranagar, Kolkata, West Bengal, India: Dibyendu Ash, CC BY SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Asian_Palm_Civet_with_pups_Baranagar_Kolkata_West_Bengal_India.jpg

juvenile Asian Palm Civet
Kerala, Malabar coast, southwestern India: Praveenp, CC BY SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Asian_Palm_Civet_Over_A_Tree.jpg

caged for Kopi Luwak production
one of the environments for one of the world's most expensive coffee: surtr, CC BY SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Luwak_(civet_cat)_in_cage.jpg

Asian Palm Civet (Paradoxurus hermaphroditus), also known as Common Palm-Civet
R. Lydekker, A Hand-Book to the Carnivora, Part I Cats, Civets, and Mungooses (1896), opp. p. 235: Biodiversity Heritage Library (BioDivLibrary), Public Domain, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/biodivlibrary/9597684543/

Siliguri, West Bengal state, eastern India: Sayantani, CC BY SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Siliguri_view.jpg

Temi Tea Garden
Ravangla, South Sikkim district, Sikkim state, northeastern India: Abhijit Kar Gupta, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Temi_Tea_Garden_Sikkim_India_October_2013.jpg

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