Author Archives: Tze Kwan

Injured baby civet rescued in Kuala Lumpur

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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!

The civet diet talk that made me lose sleep over!

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251011 – Civet Diet Talk at Raffles Girls’ School (Secondary)

Nearly 3 months ago, at the same time when my talk at Raffles Institution was fixed, I was invited to give a talk at my Alma Mata Raffles Girls’ School (Secondary) on their Research Showcase Day 25 Oct 2011. This was not like the other 4 talks that I have given because I was specifically requested to share more of my research experience such as the challenges that I faced and how I overcame them. The objective would be to enthuse the girls and make them interested in research which they will be given an opportunity to explore as they proceed to upper secondary.

Time flew past and as I returned from my trip to Indonesia, I began to prepare myself mentally as it would be my first time speaking to a large audience in an assembly hall. Also, I reorganised my slides with some advice from Siva and added in photos of my project which I thought may interest the 14 and 15 year old girls. Weiting has kindly lent me her slides which I used to introduce the common palm civet and her research work to the students while Marcus has kindly sent me some photos which I used to introduce other zoological explorations in Singapore.

This is the kind of talk that will make you excited but at the same time, lose sleep over (I really did not sleep much the night before).

On the actual day, I travelled to RGS armed with two honours posters, Weiting’s and mine. It felt great to be back and Ms Tan Beng Chiak was really kind to set up the remote control upon my request. Soon it was my turn to speak and I spoke! The girls responded to the little tip that Ron gave me after our civet recce the night before and the talk went well! I was really happy when I heard all the exclaims and discussions after the girls saw the different forms and colours that a civet poop may be.

Giving my talk to an audience of 800 RGS girls!

Giving my talk to an audience of 800 RGS girls!

Common palm civet - the last wild native urban carnivore

Common palm civet – the last wild native urban carnivore

Its research showcase day + house t shirt wearing day!

Its research showcase day + house t shirt wearing day!

It was really an honour to be invited back to give this talk. I had a really great time and hope that the girls had learnt something new and maybe a few of them would go into mammal research and biodiversity conservation in future! A few girls came to talk to me after my talk! =)

Thank you Mr Joseph Toh and Ms Tan Beng Chiak for the kind hospitality and it was nice meeting Mr Lim Cheng Puay!