Civet special

Civet special

Civets belong to a group of mammals that I hadn’t seen before. They are sometimes called civetcat, but personally I don’t really see a cat in them. They are also known for the special coffee which is made by giving a civet a certain coffee berry to eat. The pit that can be found at some point a while later in the civets poo apparently makes very tasty coffee… On Borneo a total of eight species occur and during my Borneo trip in October 2019 these animals were mostly a ‘bycatch’ for me while I was looking for cats. Since they are pretty cool mammals and I did manage to see five of the eight species: hereby a civet special!

One of the most common species that I encountered was the Malay Civet. We encountered this species often on night drives. One was so tame that it even came sniffing my boots! This species mainly forages on the ground.

Malay Civet

A civet that mainly occurs in trees is the Small-toothed Palm Civet. This is also not a rare species.

Small-toothed Palm Civet

The Island Palm Civet can also be found in trees and I also saw that one often.

Island Palm Civet

Less common was the Banded Civet. We saw this species much less than the others. By chance I had one sighting in Danum, as well as one in Deramakot and also the Kinabatangan river. Even the ten days I spent in Deramakot didn’t produce more sightings although the sighting in Deramakot definitely was the best!

Banded Civet

A truly rare civet is the Otter Civet. This was probably even the best mammal I watched on my Borneotrip. This species prefers wet areas which makes it less likely to see it next to the road. We often had rainy evenings in Deramakot which should have increased our chances, but nonetheless it seemed like we weren’t going to see it. We saw a glimpse of it on one night, but I didn’t count that. On the last night however we had excellent views of one!

Otter Civet

Rather fancy some cats? Read about the Sunda Clouded Leopard, the Marbled Cat, the Sunda Leopard Cat or the Flat-headed Cat.

And there were some birds there too! Read about the search for the Bornean Ground Cuckoo or have a look at the owls of Borneo.

Want to see some more pictures of Borneo?

Find out more about my encounter with Bornean Clouded Leopard!

Finding the very rare Marbled Cat was a really nice experience!

Or get a glimpse of a Flat-headed Cat!

Sunda Leopard Cat is a really beautiful cat too!                                                                                          

Seeing the Bornean Ground Cuckoo at last was a big relief!

Owls are never boring and there are some nice ones on Borneo!

And here is a tripreport!