Mr Kinky Tail

In 2010, when I was still doing my honours thesis, I managed to capture photos of a curious civet wandering out on a field before nightfall.

Mr Kinky Tails (2009)

Mr Kinky Tail exploring the field in daytime

This civet is a special urban common palm civet that we have affectionately named “Mr Kinky Tail” due to a kink at the base of its tail. Furthermore, for the scientific name of the common palm civet (Paradoxurus hermaphroditus), it is very challenging to distinguish between a male and a female civet due to the presence of scent glands in both sexes.

Mr Kinky Tail is our poster civet, its photos has been posted on blogs and also used in biodiversity talks to help the general public to learn about his civet friends and the threats they face in the wild and in urban areas. However, ever since, I finished my research work in mid 2010. I have yet to encounter Mr Kinky Tail and it has always held a special place in my heart being the first civet to be photographed in broad daylight.

Luckily, Mr Kinky Tail was photographed again in Oct 2011 by Ron Yeo.

Kinky Tail in a residence (Ron Yeo, Oct 2011)

Kinky Tail in a residence (Ron Yeo, Oct 2011)

Kinky Tails with opened mouth

Kinky Tail with opened mouth (Ron Yeo, 2011)

These photos were taken about 1.5 years later after the previous set of photos. It is extremely heartening to see the same individual still in the same area and doing well. Kinky Tail might be getting on with age with signs of cataracts and worn-down teeth. Nonetheless, we hope that Kinky Tail will continue to live to a ripe old age, running freely and enjoying its life out in urban Singapore.

Civet research presented from atop a garbage bin!

NCRT was at a campsite today to share our research findings with a group of 20 NIE student-teachers who have adopted the Musang Watch as part of their outreach project! The group is supervised by Vilma from NIE and Cicada Tree Eco Place who has helped me a lot for my civet diet research. We are very happy that this group of student-teachers is interested in increasing awareness of our last native wild carnivore to primary school children! We also have with us three friends – Huilian, Jun Hien & Ron!

Initially, a recce was planned to be conducted today, however due to miscommunication, we were unable to access the site. Not wanting to miss the chance to share our findings with the student-teachers, we made use of what we have around us – laptop and garbage bin (Ron’s creative idea). Thus, NCRT gave our talks to a group of 20 NIE student-teachers using a laptop on a garbage bin!

Civet girl sharing her research findings!

Civet girl sharing her research findings!

Civet POOP girl sharing her research findings!

Civet POOP girl sharing her research findings!

The highlight of the evening has to go to the civet who visited a resident’s garden which got all the student-teachers excited! This is the first time they saw a civet. As we thought that we were probably not going to see any more civets, we suddenly smelt pandan (the civet anal gland secretion smells like pandan)! I jokingly said that the civet must have come to attend my talk on civet poop. It was indeed an unique experience for the student-teachers to smell the civet before seeing it.

While this recce trip did not turn out to be what we have expected, all of us had a great time learning more about the civet and seeing the civet! We also had a great catch up conversation with the residents there who have helped Weiting and I for our research projects! Vilma later told us that “They (the student-teachers) got to see a couple of musangs and to hear 2 great research studies presented from atop a garbage bin! Very unique!…”

We are looking forward to the actual event some time in November!

– As long as we have an interested audience, it does not matter where the talks were held!