Asian palm civets can live in a variety of habitats. They naturally live in temperate and tropical forests, but in developed areas they are also found in parks, suburban gardens, plantations, and fruit orchards.
Where these civets choose to live depends mostly on the availability of food and presence of areas they can rest in, like tree hollows, rock crevices, or dense foliage. Asian palm civets are arboreal so they spend most of their time in fruit trees and fig trees, preferring the tallest trees with very dense canopies and vines for seclusion and protection. Their elevation range extends up to about 2,000 feet.
Paradoxurus hermaphroditus
Paradoxurus
15-24 YEARS
Asian palm civets lead a solitary lifestyle, except for brief periods during mating. They are both terrestrial and arboreal, being active during the night with peaks between late evening and after midnight. During the day they usually rest in trees or inside rock crevices. All palm civets are more active when food is in ample supply and when predators are out. The presence of food also affects if civets have overlapping territories or not. When food is available in their region, the territories do not overlap, but when civets need to search for food they usually travel to other territories. Males travel further in a day than females. These animals are expert climbers but less agile than other civets because their tail is non-prehensile.
Viverridae
2-5Kg
The masked palm civet is distributed from the northern parts of the Indian subcontinent, especially the Himalayas, ranging eastwards across Bhutan, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Thailand, Peninsular Malaysia, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam to China, Borneo, Sumatra, Taiwan, and the Andaman and Nicobar islands.
Asian palm civets are omnivores.They eat fruits such as berries, chiku, mango, rambutan, and coffee, but also small mammals and insects. They also feed on palm flower sap.Small animals such as rodents, lizards, snakes and frogs make up the majority of the Asian palm civet's diet, along with insects and other small creatures scuttling through the under-growth. Asian palm civets are also known to eat the fruits and flowers of palms, mangos and coffee in their natural habitats.