Masked Palm Civets (Paguma larvata): Non-Ringtails of North India, Southeast Asia, South China

The mask of the gem-faced masked palm civet accedes to two seemingly contradictory intents. It acts as an advertisement and as camouflage. For example, scientists associate the startling pattern of the gem-faced masked palm civet’s face with visual cautions by musky scent glands of:

• Body-odor;
• Information-sharing;
• Stinkbomb-releasing;
• Territory-marking.

They also attribute to a striking facial design vision-communicated warnings to predatory mammals, raptors, and reptiles of the bearer’s prowess at:

• Locating hiding places;
• Pursuing escape routes;
• Scaling arboreal heights.

And yet at the same time, the mask blends seamlessly as super-clever camouflage in the gem-faced masked palm civet’s homeland. The black-and-white facial markings indeed copy the play of dark and light across surface-level vegetation and over woody bark.

The physique of the gem-faced masked palm civet blackens :

• The bandit-like facial mask carpeting cheekbones, forehead, and nape backward to the shoulder blades;
• The 4 five-clawed, five-digited paws;
• The 4 lower limbs;
• The tail-tip, upward as much as ¼ - ½ tail-baseward.

It grizzles brown, buff, grey, orange, and yellow-red on:

• The moist nose;
• The short-haired, spotless, stripe-less pelage.

It whitens:

• The chin;
• The diamond- or straight-line dividing face and nape;
• The lips;
• The marks around big, dark-adapted, rounded eyes whose pupils are vertical and whose camera-trapped night-shine is green;
• The patches around alert, rounded, wide-spaced ears;
• Sideburns;
• The supersensory vibrissae (whiskers) flanking the pointed muzzle;
• The throat;
• 12 incisors, 4 canines, 14 premolars, 8 molars.

Camouflage-amenable physiques indeed allow gem-faced masked palm civets to pursue survivalist behaviors. Gem-faced masked palm civets in fact appreciate comfortable niches within roomy habitats. So they are never alone in claiming:

• 0.77 square-mile (2 square-kilometer) nightly hunting grounds;
• 1-day-only, single-occupant rests -- not nests -- in tree hollows or on foliage-shrouded branches and forks within the uppermost 10% of a deciduous or evergreen tree’s canopy.

They therefore articulate arboreal, nocturnal, nomadic, omnivorous, solitary life cycles and natural histories as rugged recluses within extended networks of loose communities created, perpetuated, and refreshed through:

• Bi-annual mating mixers;
• Established escape routes;
• Information-sharing, predator-repelling, prey-disarming, territory-marking scent releases;
• Set hiding places.

They generally elude predatory hawks, jaguars, leopards, snakes, and tigers.

Behavior and biology additionally conjoin in the super-savvy breeding and feeding practices of gem-faced masked palm civets. Gem-faced masked palm civets favor dietary and mating habits which ensure environmental roles and population sustainability. They find themselves listed among the world’s carnivores (“flesh-eaters”). But they actually go in for the opportunistic eating habits of non-picky omnivores (“everything-eaters”) by consuming:

• Arthropods (especially bark beetles and other tree insect pests);
• Eggs;
• Mollusks;
• Small birds, amphibians, mammals, and reptiles.

They also include enthusiastic consumption of such wild-world produce as:

• Fruits (bananas, figs, mangos);
• Juices;
• Vegetation (especially roots).

The palm part of their name particularly memorializes their passion for fermented and fresh palm pulp. But it overlooks their obligate pest-controlling, seed-dispersing environmentalism.

Population sustainability benefits from bi-annual breeding seasons. The first of two yearly mating periods commences in early spring. The second emerges in the late autumn. Both end up with litters of 1 – 4 furry offspring. Newborn development entails:

• Opening eyes 9 days after birth;
• Realizing adult shapes and sizes 3 months after delivery;
• Surviving about 10 years in the wild and 20 years in captivity or domestication on individual ranges averaging 39.38 square miles (102 square kilometers).  

Physical and sexual maturity showcases:

• Ear lengths of 1.58 – 2.36 inches (4 – 6 centimeters);
• Head-and-body lengths of 19.69 – 29.92 inches (50 – 76 centimeters);
• Tail lengths of 19.69 – 25.20 inches (50 – 64 centimeters);
• Weights of 7.93 – 11.01 pounds (3.6 – 5 kilograms).  

Many subspecies verify sustainability:

• Paguma larvata larvata (Charles Hamilton-Smith [1776 – 1859], 1827), chichingensis (Wang, 1981), hainana (Oldfield Thomas [1858 – 1929], 1909), lanigera (Brian Hodgson [1800 – 1894], 1836) -- China;
• grayi (Edward Bennett [1797 – 1836], 1835) -- China, Nepal, India;
• intrudens (Robert Wroughton [1849 – 1921], 1910) -- Cambodia, China, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam;
• janetta (Thomas, 1928), nigriceps (Reginald Pocock [1863 – 1947], 1939) -- Myanmar;
• jourdanii -- Malaysia, leucostymax (Gray, 1837), ogilbyi (Louis Fraser [1810 – 1866], 1846) -- Indonesia;
• neglecta (Pocock, 1934) -- Bhutan, India, Myanmar;
• robusta (Gerrit Miller Jr. [1869 – 1956], 1906) -- Malaysia, Myanmar, Thailand;
• taivana (Robert Swinhoe [1836 – 1877], 1862) -- Taiwan;
• tytleri (Robert Tytler [1818 – 1872], 1864), wroughtoni (Ernst Schwarz [1889 – 1962], 1913) -- India.

Bio-geography and demographics encourage conservationists to rank gem-faced masked palm civets among faunal populations of least concern regarding environmental stress. But gem-faced masked palm civets experience negative side-effects from:

• Expanded urban and shrunken wildland interfaces;

• Increased over-hunting of flesh, fragrances, and furs;

• Intensified agro-industrialism.

They favor primary-growth sylvan life cycles and natural histories near clean waters at altitudes up to 8,202.10 feet (2,500 meters) in;

• Deciduous forests;

• Evergreen forests;

• Peat swamp forests.

They survive such degraded, disturbed, fragmented, secondary-growth habitats as:

• Farmland and forest mosaics;

• Logged forests near palm plantations;

• Village and woodland mosaics.

As loyal pets and obligate environmentalists affectionately called “veiled weasels” (Paguma larvata), they warrant:

• Governmental protection;

• Scientific research;

• Wildlife-loving activism.

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

Lieut-Col. Charles Hamilton Smith, describer of Masked Palm Civet
C.H. Smith, The Natural History of the Human Species, frontispiece: Not in copyright, via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/23578964

Masked Palm Civet (Paguma larvata), under common and scientific synonyms of the Masked Glutton (Gulo larvatus)
Edward Griffith, The Animal Kingdom, volume the second (1827), opp. p. 281: Public Domain, via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/33298585

Masked Palm Civet (Paguma larvata), under synonym of Paradoxurus larvatus
John Edward Gray, Illustrations of Indian Zoology, Vol. II (1833-1834), Plate 11: Public Domain Mark 1.0, via Internet Archive @ https://archive.org/details/IllustrationsOfIndianZoology2/page/n30/mode/1up

Masked Palm Civet feeding on cotton tree (Bombax malabaricum)
Hong Kong, offshore from Guangdong Province, southeastern China: Denise Chan (denn), CC BY SA 2.0, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/42902413@N00/116381038/; Denise Chan from Hong Kong, China, CC BY SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Paradoxurus_hermaphroditus_feeding.jpg

Masked Palm Civet young'un in new homeland, Japan
Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture, east central Honshu: Tony Hara (wetwing2005), CC BY SA 2.0, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/wetwing/6997798116/

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:Masked_Palm_Civet_area.png

taxidermied Paguma larvata from Myanmar
Museo Civico di Storia Naturale di Genova, Genoa, northwestern Italy: Daderot, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Paguma_larvata_-_Museo_Civico_di_Storia_Naturale_Giacomo_Doria_-_Genoa,_Italy_-_DSC02725.JPG?uselang=de

Masked Palm Civet's favored ecosystems: Ratargul Swamp Forest, Bangladesh
Gowainghat, Sylhet District, northeastern Bangladesh: Rossi101 at English Wikipedia, CC BY SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Ratargul,_Sylhet.jpg

Masked Palm Civet's stunning native ecosystems: Known locally as Fairy Meadows
Nanga Parbat, at 26,660 ft (8,126 m), world's ninth highest mountain; Gilgit-Baltistan Region, northeastern Pakistan: Atif Gulzar, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Nanga_parbat,_Pakistan_by_gul791.jpg

Masked Palm Civet's gem-like native landscapes: Longsheng Rice Terraces
Longsheng County, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region (GZAR), South Central China: severin.stalder (Severin.stalder), CC BY SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:LongshengRiceTerrace.jpg

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