DISTRIBUTION: Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland and Tripura.
HABITAT: Foothills and mountainous areas.
Wildlife facts and jungle tour in India
BROWN PALM CIVET
DESCRIPTION: Superficially, it looks like
the Palm Civet without the markings on the face and body, but is more uniformly
chocolate–brown: its head, tail and limbs are darker, the shoulders more buff,
and the flanks greyer. The tail is longer with a pale tip in many. Its neck
hair grows in the opposite direction to the rest of its fur – an adaptation to
deter predators.
BEHAVIOUR: Omnivorous, but mostly frugivorous,
depending on rainforest fruits.
DISTRIBUTION: Western Ghats south of Goa.
P.j. jerdoni in Coorg and northern Western Ghats, and P.j. caniscus reported
from the Nilgiris, and the Western Ghats in Tamil Nadu and Kerala. Recent
records only from Coorg, Nilgiris, Anamalais, Kalakaad–Mundanthurai and Silent
Valley.
Size: 43–62 cm
IUCN Status: Vulnerable
SMALL INDIAN CIVET
DESCRIPTION: The common ring-tailed civet,
the Small Indian Civet is buff to grey with dark spots all over its flanks that
converge to form three to five lines on its back. The black-and-white ringed
tail has 6–10 dark bands and a pale tip. This civet lacks a spinal crest (this
and its small size sets it apart from the Large Indian or Malabar Civet) and
has a cream throat with two thin, dark bands across it. Its ears are small,
rounded and set close to each other on top of the head, more like a cat’s,
while its legs are dark and long. The general body proportions, however, are
not that of a cat and it has the low-slung, elongated body of a civet. It has a
short muzzle with white patches on its cheeks and white spots between the eye that
are not very prominent in many individuals.
BEHAVIOUR: Small Indian Civets seem to
breed all year round, with 4–5 young. The young are entirely looked after by
the female civet and are housed in a small burrow at the bottom of trees or a drainpipe
near human habitation. The civet is easily tamed and, historically, was kept in
many southern Indian homes as a pet and for yielding ‘civet’. When kept in
captivity in this fashion, a stake is put next to the animal on a string. The
civet rubs its anal glands on to the stake and the resulting waxy secretion is
collected by scraping it off the stake by the houseowners in the morning, for
use in medicines and perfumes.
DISTRIBUTION: Throughout India, from the
Himalayan foothills to Kanyakumari in the south. V.i. indica in southern India,
V.i. baptistae in north–east India, V.i. deserti in northern and central India,
and V.i. wellsi in western India.
HABITAT: Inhabits a variety of habitats,
including semi-evergreen, deciduous, bamboo and scrub forests, open land,
plantations and riverine habitat except wet evergreen forests and mountains. It
prefers scrub and dry forests to undisturbed
Size: 45–63 cm
IUCN Status: Least Concern
LARGE INDIAN CIVET
DESCRIPTION: A large doglike civet with a
low-slung body accentuated by short legs, the Large Indian Civet is a greyish
beast with buff overtones (but less buff than the Small Indian Civet). The coat
can be longer in the winters in the northern part of its range. It can be
recognized by its distinctive black and white bands on the sides of the neck.
The grey face has white patches on the muzzle. It has distinct black spotting
on the flanks, dark limbs and a black-and-white banded tail. It has a dark
dorsal crest of varying height running from shoulder to tail, the throat and
fore chest are black, and the slightly large ears are widely set on the forehead.
The dark and white bands on the tail are broader and fewer in number than
in the Small Indian Civet. The forefeet are darker brown than the hind
feet. Newborn are black with white markings on the lip, tail, ear and
throat.
BEHAVIOUR: Unknown.
DISTRIBUTION: Dooars in northern West
Bengal and north–east India.
Size: 58–95 cm
IUCN Status: Vulnerable
MALABAR CIVET
DESCRIPTION: The most endangered civet and
possibly the most endangered mammal in India, the Malabar Civet was last reported
from Kerala in 1990. It can be told apart from the Small Indian Civet by its
much larger size and the dark, erectile crest of hair that runs down its spine,
much like that of the Large Indian Civet. Unlike the Large Indian Civet, the
dark band runs through to the tip of the tail. The underside of the tail has
five black and white bands. The black spots on the grey coat do not form lines
or patterns, but are splotched randomly. The Malabar Civet is most closely
related to the Large Spotted Civet (V. megaspila) of South–East Asia.
BEHAVIOUR: Though not confirmed, it
probably uses fixed places for latrines.
DISTRIBUTION: In the past, lowland coastal
forests of Kerala and Karnataka.
HABITAT: Highly degraded lowland forests. Also reported from cashew plantations.
Size: approx. 76 cm,
IUCN Status: Critically Endangered
GREYMONGOOSE
DESCRIPTION: The common Indian Grey
Mongoose is the famed animal traditionally used in snake and mongoose shows and
has been immortalized as Rikki-Tikki-Tavi in Rudyard Kipling’s story. Its tawny
grey fur is much more grizzled and coarser than that of other mongooses and
individual hairs have 10 alternate dark and light bands. Its small legs are
darker than its body, and its tail is as long as its head and body put
together. The tip of the tail is never black but pale yellow or white. The
amount of ruddiness in the coat varies in different subspecies, but all animals are more grey
than other mongooses. Males are larger than female.
BEHAVIOUR: Known for tackling venomous
snakes adeptly; however, the animal is a generalist omnivore. All mongooses
have excellent colour vision.
DISTRIBUTION: Throughout India except the
high Himalayas. Found up to 2,100 m in the Himalayas. Subspecific distribution
needs confirmation, but in literature is as follows: H.e. edwardsii in south–east
India, H.e. carnaticus in south–west India, H.e. moerens
in eastern, central and north–east India, H.e. pallens in western India, and H.e. montanus in north–west India.
Size: 36–45 cm
IUCN Status: Least Concern
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