Asian Palm Civet

[Roopak Gangadharan]

Caught this one on our compound wall one night during peak monsoon.

Asian or Common palm civets are plenty in the Kerala country side. They are also called Toddy cats for their habit of raiding palm trees for the sap. Well known for their habit of taking up residence in the attics of the traditional Kerala style houses, they are poached for flesh and use in traditional medicine. One of first field works we started in the locality of my native village was to discourage people from poaching them for flesh and we have been reasonably successful at it.

500D, 55-250, f5.6, ISO3200, SS 1/4 -0.7EC. C&C welcome.

Regards
Roopak

[Mrudul Godbole]

Nice sighting. Good you could sight it in the open. Didn't know that they reside in the attics of the old houses. Thanks for sharing the detailed information. Look forward to more.

[Bhargava Srivari]

Lovely sighting. Feels nice to know that the conservation efforts have been paying off

tfs

[Sabyasachi Patra]

Good to see this one. I had heard about these residing in the attics in the villages in Tamil Nadu side as well. Need one clip of these fellows staying in the attic. Have to plan sometime.

A few years back, one could find these in Bhubaneswar in our house. My sister had seen it a number of times during the night. I never saw during my brief stays there. I am told that since the last two years, they haven't seen it. Clearing up the area to create residential apartments is taking its toll.

Cheers,
Sabyasachi

[V S Sankar]

I have also seen it when I was in school.The adventurous guys used to catch it and leash them for all to see.I havnt seen one for years to come.

Nice capture by Roopak and lot of infformation.
Regards