Meet the civets!

Hey guys, I would like to introduce you to our common palm civets, max and ken. These boys aren’t at the park yet and are currently living at SWP, awaiting their brand new enclosure at WWP. I’m excited to share with you their personalities to help you get to know them a bit before their arrival.

Common palm civets are native to Asia and are a member of the Viverridae family which also includes binturongs and fossa. Researchers recognise 20 species of civet, and I have been fortunate enough to work with 4 of them. The fanaloka, owstens palm civets, banded civet and commons. They are a pleasure to work with and a fascinating group of animals. Common palm civets are a solitary species, rarely interacting with one another apart from when it is time to mate. They are ‘crepuscular’ meaning they are mainly active in the early morning and late evening or twilight period. During the night they tend to patrol their territories and mark them using urine, musk glands and faeces and spend the day sleeping.

Diet

Civets are opportunistic omnivores and enjoy foraging for insects, mice, frogs, lizards, birds, eggs and fruits.

ken

Ken is the more confident of the two and will come bounding towards the door once you open it. He is not the most patient of animals and has been known to be airborne flying towards his favourite biscuits. He is quite cheeky and incredibly speedy when he wants to be. He is also very intelligent and a pleasure to train, picking up new behaviours and working out how to dissect new enrichment challenges very quickly. Civets have incredible balance and climbing skills and so if he cannot work something out from the ground he will try another angle! Hanging upside down from a branch or sideways off the rock work. Ken is identifiable by his big white chin and round head and is the larger of the two.

Max

Max is a very handsome boy and is often found in the mornings tucked up in his hammock but is always keen to come down and see me. He has a darker, pointier face. He too is very smart and great to train with. So far, he is excellent at following the target and is also trained to go on scales. We do training with a lot of our animals at the park for a lot of reasons which benefit the animals. If an animal will willingly go onto scales to be weighed for general health checks and for working out medication doses, we don’t have to capture them, avoiding a potentially very stressful situation. Following a target helps us to observe the animal moving around, serves as a form of exercise and gives them an enriching challenge as they must think about how to get to the target. It is of course their choice whether they wish to participate in training and they always enjoy the sessions.

Threats

Due to their broad range of habitats across Asia they are still classed as least concern by the IUCN. They are threatened in some parts of its range by hunting for bushmeat and capture from the wild for the illegal wildlife trade. Buyers are often using them for the increased production of ‘Kopi Luwak’. Kopi luwak is an ‘exotic’ coffee prepared using coffee beans that have been subjected to ingestion and fermentation in the gastrointestinal tract of the common palm civet, which is called luwak in Indonesia. It is traditionally made from the faeces of wild civets that would have been rare to come across, making it the most expensive coffee in the world. However, due to increasing international demand, civets are being captured from the wild and fed coffee cherries to mass-produce this blend. Many of these civets are housed in battery cage systems and fed a diet consisting almost exclusively of coffee cherries, leading to severe health issues and frequent deaths. Please be careful what you purchase and ensure it is not fuelling this cruel trade.

Our boys are set to get a fancy new enclosure in the new nocturnal area which is currently under construction. With varying levels of branching and lots of space. They receive enrichment twice daily which is a really important part of their husbandry. Anything that encourages natural behaviours, gets them moving about or interested is great for them. when I’m thinking of enrichment for an animal I always think about what adaptations does this animal have? what are they capable of? and how do I get them to do it here?

For these guys I came up with a list of their skills: balance, keen sense of smell, climbing, foraging/digging, good eyesight in low light levels. I took these and the following things seem to bring out all of these behaviours:

• Forage crates – which are filled with leaves or woodchip with food items hidden inside, this is great to get them to use their amazing sense of smell to search for the food and then get them digging.
• Hanging baskets- civets have incredible balance and are able to walk along thin branches with ease, using their long tails to balance them. They also have strong grip with their paws and can grip the branch with their hind legs while dangling down into the basket. This is great exercise for them and an opportunity to show off these skills.
• Buried food scatter- similar to the forage crates, they will have to rely on their keen sense of smell to locate the food. I always make sure it is buried in several different places so it takes them a while to find them all.
• Puzzle feeders- we have a lot of different kongs and slow feeders that we use, most of them require the animal to push them around or manipulate them in some way to release the food. This is a great way to get them using that brain! We make sure to give the civets items that will last into the evening hours when there is low light so they can use their amazing eyesight.
• Hammocks- our boys love a hammock! They enjoy being high up as this gives them a good vantage point and is where they feel safe.

• Honey or peanut butter ice lollies- when the temperature rises we like to spoil our boys every now and again with some ice-cold refreshments and these are a firm favourite of theirs.
• Large sacks- these boys will disappear into a large sack to have a snack, nap in them or drag them around.
• New branches/ platforms- anything we can do to change up their environment will bring out their curious nature and allow them to investigate new areas.

I look forward to seeing their enclosure and moving them into their new home!