The Lovely Masked palm civet

The masked palm civet is also known as the gem-faced civet (Paguma larvata). All photos and video are from Andrew Hardacre, who can be found often wandering around The Peak, and who has a wonderful eye for discovery and photography.

This little chappy was found and photographed by Andrew Hardacre, post Typhoon on the 27th September. It is a juvenile and it appeared lost and frightened. It kept close to Andrew, who tried to feed it figs and give it water, and it was later picked up by the SPCA and sent to Kadoorie for rehabilitation. It is definitely still a baby, and too young to look after itself. Here it is crying out, with a little squeaky noise, often walking up to Andrew and trying to climb his leg!

The genus Paguma was first named and described by John Edward Gray in 1831, and in recent times, masked palm civets were considered to be a likely vector of SARS (more on that on my blog tomorrow).

The masked palm civet resembles other palm civets, but does not have spots or stripes, and it has a black and white facial mask. They can get quite large, with the adult body up to 70cm or more, and a tail of another 60cm.