Today morning, we were alerted by Jeremy Peet who is living in KL, Malaysia regarding a baby civet rescue!

About 4 days ago, Jeremy rescued a young civet (about 35cm long including the tail) that was caught by his cat. It was bitten on the neck and has lost a lot of blood. Since then, Jeremy has been taking care of the baby civet and it is currently well enough to move around and eat.

Knowing that the civet is too young to be released, Jeremy contacted us at mammal@sivasothi.com for advice on an organisation to contact in KL which can take care of the civet. He has previously tried to leave the civet on the balcony, hoping that the parents would come to pick up the baby civet but it was in vain.

Civetgirl Xu Weiting responded and advised Jeremy to try passing the baby civet to either Zoo Negara or the Wildlife Dept (Perhilitan). She also referred him to our blog on what to do and how to take care of the civet in the meantime.

Baby common palm civet rescued in KL (Photo by Jeremy Peet)

This situation is not unique to the civets in KL. In Singapore, there have been several cases where young civets were killed by pets such as dogs too. In addition, as the civets live in close proximity with humans, these urban civets also face other threats such as trapping and roadkill. You can do your part in saving our last urban native carnivore by informing us if you find an orphan or injuried civet. It is also important to know that trapping is unnecessary and often causes injuries to the civets!

Thank you Jeremy for this alert and good job for rescuing and taking good care of the baby civet! Hopefully, the baby civet will be taken in by Zoo Negara and subsequently be released back to the wild!

Update – The baby civet was taken in by the Malaysia Wildlife Society on the 1st March 2012. May you have a good life ahead, young civet!