Large Indian Civet
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| Large Indian Civet | ||||||||||||||||
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| Viverra zibetha (Linnaeus, 1758) |
The Large Indian Civet (Viverra zibetha) is generally a grizzled greyish brown, with white and black bars along their neck (usually two white stripes and three black stripes), stripes on the tail, and a white muzzle. The hair on their back is longer. Their claws are retractable. They have hair in between their paw pads.
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[edit] Habitat
The Indian civet ranges from Indochina to China. It can be found in the countries of Nepal, Bangladesh, the Malay peninsula, and Vietnam.[1]
[edit] Food
The Indian civet is mostly carnivorous. They will eat birds, frogs, snakes, small mammals, eggs, crabs, and fish. They will also eat fruit and roots.
[edit] Social Behavior
The Indian civet is solitary and nocturnal. They spend most of their time on the ground, though they are agile climbers. They spend much of their time during the day sleeping in burrows in the ground that have been dug by other animals and abandoned. They are territorial and mark their territories with excretions form their anal glands. Their territory can range from 0.6-2 mi sq (1.7-5.4 Km sq).
[edit] Reproduction
Females breed at any time of the year, and generally have two litters a year. A litter usually consists of four young. They are born in a hole in the ground or dense vegetation. They open their eyes at 10 days and are weaned at one month old.
[edit] Subspecies
There are five subspecies[1]:
- V. z. zibetha, found in Nepal, Bhutan, upper Bengal;
- V. z. picta, found east of Assam,
- V. z. ashtoni,
- V. z. hainana, described just in 1983 by Wang and Xu,
- V. z. pruinosus.
In 1997 Sokolov, Rozhnov & Pham Trong Anh described new species as Viverra tainguensis know from Tainguen Plateau in Gialai Province in Vietnam. Today research DNA confirm that be comprises the schedule of genes Viverra zibetha picta subspecies.
[edit] Conservation
In Hong Kong, it is a protected species under Wild Animals Protection Ordinance Cap 170..
[edit] References
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