| Malabar large-spotted civet | |
|---|---|
_DSCN2359_(cut).jpg) | |
| Stuffed specimen atGovernment Museum, Chennai | |
Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Carnivora |
| Family: | Viverridae |
| Genus: | Viverra |
| Species: | V. civettina[1] |
| Binomial name | |
| Viverra civettina[1] Blyth, 1862 | |
 | |
| Malabar large-spotted civet range | |
TheMalabar large-spotted civet (Viverra civettina), also known as theMalabar civet, is aviverrid endemic to theWestern Ghats ofIndia. It is listed asCritically Endangered on theIUCN Red List as the population is estimated to number fewer than 250 mature individuals. It has not been recorded during surveys carried out between 1990 and 2014.[2]In the early 1990s, isolated populations still survived in less disturbed areas of SouthMalabar but were seriously threatened byhabitat destruction andhunting outside protected areas.[3]
It is known asKannan chandu,Male meru andveruku inKerala, and inKarnataka asMangala kutri,Bal kutri andDodda punugina.[4]
Viverra civettina was thescientific name proposed byEdward Blyth in 1862 for a civet specimen from southern Malabar.[5]Reginald Innes Pocock consideredV. megaspila andV. civettina to be distinctspecies.[6]Ellerman andMorrison-Scott consideredV. civettina asubspecies ofV. megaspila.[7]IUCN Red List considers it a distinct species.[2]
There is some controversy as to whether the Malabar civet is even native to theWestern Ghats or whether it is a valid species. Background information for the specimens is scant, so there is little to no information on its ecology or habits. In spite of the heavy habitat destruction in the region, the civet still seems unusually threatened for a small, generalist carnivore. The region where the civet was known to occur is the site of a major trading port, formerly including the trade of civets such as thelarge-spotted civet. Due to this, there is some speculation on whether the Malabar civet is an introduced population of the large-spotted civet that eventually died off.[2][8]
The Malabar large-spotted civet is dusky gray. It has a dark mark on the cheek, large transverse dark marks on the back and sides and two obliquely transverse dark lines on the neck. These dark marks are more pronounced than in thelarge Indian civet. Its throat and neck are white. A mane starts between the shoulders. Its tail is ringed with dark bands. The feet are dark.[9]It differs from thelarge-spotted civet by the greater nakedness of the soles of the feet. The hairs on the interdigital webs between the digital pads form submarginal patches; the skin of theplantar pad is naked in front and at the sides. There are remnants of themetatarsal pads on the hind foot as two naked spots, the external a little above the level of thehallux, the internal considerably higher. A male individual kept in the Zoological Gardens ofTrivandrum in the 1930s measured 30 in (76 cm) in head and body with a 13 in (33 cm) long tail and weighed 14.5 lb (6.6 kg).[6]
In the 19th century, the Malabar civet occurred throughout theMalabar coast from the latitude ofHonnavar toKanyakumari. It inhabited the forests and richly wooded lowland, and was occasionally found on elevated forest tracts. It was considered abundant inTravancore.[9]
Until the 1960s, extensive deforestation has reduced most of the natural forests in the entire stretch of the coastalWestern Ghats.[10]By the late 1960s, the Malabar civet was thought to be nearextinction. In 1987, one individual was sighted inKerala.[11]
In 1987, two skins were obtained nearNilambur in northern Kerala, an area that is dominated bycashew andrubber plantations. Two more skins were found in this area in 1990. These plantations probably held most of the surviving population, as these were little disturbed and provided a dense understorey of shrubs and grasses. Large-scale clearance for planting rubber trees threatened this habitat.[3]
Interviews conducted in the early 1990s among local hunters indicated the presence of Malabar civet in protected areas ofKarnataka.[4] Duringcamera trapping surveys in lowlandevergreen and semi-evergreen forests in the Western Ghats of Karnataka and Kerala from April 2006 to March 2007, no photographic record was obtained in a total of 1,084 camera trap nights.[12]
The Malabar civet is considerednocturnal and so elusive that little is known about its biology and ecology apart from habitat use.[3]
Until a few decades ago, local merchants in Kerala reared Malabar civets to obtaincivetone, an extract from the scent gland, which was used in medicine, and as an aromatic.[4]
It is now seriously threatened by habitat destruction and fragmentation. Until the 1990s, it was confined to remnant forests and disturbed thickets in cashew and rubber plantations in northern Kerala, where the hunting pressure was another major threat.[3]
During theCOVID-19 pandemic and the subsequentlockdown of India, a video clip of an unidentified civet walking the deserted streets ofMeppayur was uploaded onTwitter. The civet was identified by its uploader as a Malabar civet and the clip subsequently wentviral online. However, numerous experts identified the civet in the video as actually being thesmall Indian civet (Viverricula indica), a similar-looking but far more common species.[13]
One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from this source, which is in thepublic domain.
