Jerdon's Brown Palm Civets (Paradoxurus jerdoni): Ringtails of the Western Ghats in India

Protected tropical rainforests on south India's Western Ghats anticipate the bio-geographical needs of Jerdon's brown palm civets. The mountain range in question belongs among the striking landforms in:

• Goa;

• Gujarat;

• Karnataka;

• Kerala;

• Maharashtra;

• Tamil Nadu.

It benefits from recognition as a UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization) World Heritage Site since 2012. The persistence of primary vegetation per original extent and the prevalence and total of endemic species every 100 square kilometers confer to the range ranking among the world's “hottest hotspots” (Myers et al., 2000:Table 6) with:

• Brazilian Atlantic Forest;

• Caribbean;

• Indo-Myanmar;

• Kenyan/Tanzanian Eastern Arc and Coastal Forests;

• Madagascar;

• Philippines;

• Sundaland.  

A precept regarding civets associates agility, appearance, and arborealism. Arboreal and terrestrial fleetness belongs to spotted, striped physiques. But Jerdon's limber, tree-dwelling brown palm civets break the mold. They communicate all-brown, whose uniformity sometimes admits:

• Darkening from black-brown ears, heads, limbs, necks, shoulders, and tails;

• Grizzling from grey-ringed strands;

• Lightening from whitish-yellow-tipped tails.

The coats of the nominate (“first-named”) subspecies, Paradoxurus jerdoni jerdoni, convey rich darkness that pales to buff or tan in the alternate subspecies. Darker or lighter, they function as effective camouflage for the escape-artist survivalism of:

• Alert ears;

• Big, dark-adapted eyes;

• Super-nimble limbs;

• 12 incisors, 4 canines, 16 premolars, and 8 molars;

• 20 curved, sharp claws.   

Formal presentation of Jerdon's brown palm civets in 1885 describes moth-damaged skins and skull discovered in Mr. F. Levinge's garden at Kodaikanal, Madras Presidency and forwarded from Ahmednagar. Bombay Presidency by Reverend S.B. Fairbank. It honors William Thomas Blanford (October 7, 1832 – June 23, 1905), as:

• Geological Survey of India London-born scientist;

• The Fauna of British India, Including Ceylon and Burma publisher with Eugene William Oates (December 31, 1845 – November 16, 1911).

The genus indicates “paradoxes” of:

• Forward-growing nape hairs;

• Super-long upper-jaw opening.

The species memorializes Jedburgh-born naturalist Thomas Caverhill Jerdon (October 12, 1811 – June 12, 1872), as:

• Edinburgh University medical graduate;

• East India Company surgeon;

• Madras Hospitals Deputy Inspector-General.   

The official introduction of the subspecies Paradoxurus jerdoni caniscus to wildlife-loving amateurs and professionals outside India comes in 1933. It examines a specimen from Virajpet, Karnataka. It expresses the taxonomic conclusions of Reginald Innes Pocock (March 4, 1863 – August 9, 1947), as:

• Clifton-born biology and geology student at University College, Bristol;

• London Natural History Museum arachnologist (spider specialist), myriapodologist (centipede and millipede specialist), ornithologist (bird specialist), and taxonomist;

• London Zoo superintendent.

The results of its analysis give credence and validity to:

• The local designation kart-nai (“dog of the woods”);

• The subspecies identification caniscus (“dog-like”).

Any canine comparison generally identifies as most similar feature the elongated, extended dog- or otter-like muzzles of Jerdon's brown palm civets.

Dog-like muzzles, fox-like bodies, mongoose-like limbs, and skunk-like scents anticipate arboreal, nocturnal, omnivorous life cycles and natural histories. Camera-trapped and museum specimens communicate physical and sexual maturity, with:

• Head-and-body lengths of 16.54 – 24.41 inches (42 – 62 centimeters);

• Tail lengths of 14.96 – 20.87 inches (38 – 53 centimeters);

• Weights of 3.09 – 9.92 pounds (1.4 – 4.5 kilograms).

Anecdotes, research, and technology confirm:

• Births after 60 – 70-day early rainy-season gestations to 2 – 4 fur-covered, open-eyed offspring;

• Dens in forks, hollows, Malabar giant squirrel (Ratufa indica) nests, and vines in large, primary-growth trees;

• Diets of eggs, fish, flowers (Cullenia, Syzygium spp), fruits, insects, roots, and small mammals;

• Time-out on open-canopied branches.

Scientists accredit Jerdon's brown palm civets with such elusive stealth that mammalogists mislabeled them extinct in Kodaikanal and Ootacamund. Jerdon's brown palm civets favor undisturbed rainforests at altitudes of 1,640.42 – 3,280.84 feet (500 – 1,000 meters) above sea level. They get used to plantation-dominated, rainforest-fragmented landscapes sheltering:

• Dense-canopied forest patches;

• Many-seeded, pulpy, small, water-laden, 0.39 – 0.79-inch-sized (1 – 2-centimeter) Ceylon olive, coffee, and wild nutmeg berries and drupes.

They nevertheless handle differentially:

• Cardamom, eucalyptus, tea, and teak plantations, whose products they disdain;

• Coffee plantations, whose shade trees produce fruits.

But fragmented habitats ultimately open Jerdon's brown palm civets to predation by:

• Bushmeat-directed poachers;

• Perfume- and pet-minded traders;

• Ritual-oriented villagers.

Modernizing and traditionalist interactions do not have to devastate urban and wildland interfaces. But the realization of reasonable outcomes does require reconciling population sustainability with environmental and human well-being. Few politico-economies indeed escape the power of world markets. India's vast geography gets the attention of many businesses and governments. Agro-industrial production for international trade gives India necessary revenue for socio-economic programs. But the pressure is intense to retain international trade's most advantageous niches. Exploitation of rich resources therefore may proceed super-fast. India indeed offers a case in point since agro-industrialism and over-hunting downsize and fragment the southwest's dense rainforests. Governmental protection, scientific research, and wildlife-loving activism currently work to sustain endemic populations of Jerdon's brown palm civets.

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

Munnar, hill station, Western Ghats
Western Ghats, southeastern Kerala state, southwestern India: Bimal K C from Cochin, India, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Munnar_hillstation_kerala.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:Jerdon's_Palm_Civet_area.png

Kodaikanal, a scenic hill station in Palani Hills
Kodaikanal, Dindigul district, southwestern Tamil Nadu state, southern India: Challiyan at Malayalam Wikipedia, CC BY SA 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Upper_Lake_vire_kodaikanal.jpg

British physician Thomas Caverhill Jerdon, namesake of Jerdon's Brown Palm Civet
Allan O. Hume, The Nests and Eggs of Indian Birds, vol. I (1889), between pp. x-1: Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:JerdonHume.jpg

Brown Palm Civet (Paradoxurus jerdoni) in native habitat
Munnar, Kerala State, southwestern India: Anil G aka Neelakandan Madavana, CC BY SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:MG_1528_Brown_Palm_Civet_Paradoxurus_jerdoni_Neelakandan_Madavana_aka_Anil.jpg

Brown Palm Civet (Paradoxurus jerdoni), also known as Jerdon's Palm Civet
Brown Palm Civet feeding on fig; Mudumalai National Park, Nilgiri Hills, western Tamil Nadu: Kalyanvarma, CC BY SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Brown_palm_civet.jpg

Cardamom Hills, southern Western Ghats
cardamom plants on terraces, Cardamom Hills, India: Ziegler175, CC BY SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:KardamomHillsKardamom.jpg

Jerdon's Palm Civet (Paradoxurus Jerdoni)
illustration by Joseph Smit (July 18, 1836 – November 4, 1929); W.T. Blanford, "A Monograph of the Genus Paradoxurus, F. Cuv."
Proceedings of the Scientific Meetings of the Zoological Society of London for the Year 1885 (Nov. 3), Plate XLIX, between pp. 780-781: Public Domain, via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/31015894

Jerdon's Brown Palm Civet landscapes: Jog Falls
Sagara, central Karnataka state, southwestern India: Prasanaik, CC BY SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Jog_Falls_Wide.jpg

Jerdon's Brown Palm Civet synecology: Two sub-adult tigers watch gaurs (Bos gaurus), also called Indian bison, in Bhadra Wildlife Sanctuary
Bhadra Wildlife Sanctuary, southwestern Karnataka state, southwestern India

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