Rescued – Civet Kitten

A few days ago we received a call from a member of the public who had found a very young common palm civet (Paradoxurus hermaphroditus) on the ground under a tree screaming, the little kitten was covered in ants. He picked up the kitten and cleared the ants away, unfortunately its mother was no where to be seen, the man then called us to help. The WFFT Rescue Team headed out straight away to collect this little one, she was found about 1-hour south of the WFFT Wildlife Rescue Centre. The team collected her and brought her directly back to WFFT.

The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species currently lists this species as Least Concern (LC). The recent rapid rise in production of ‘civet coffee’, a practice using mainly this species, and a new craze for keeping this species as a ‘pet’ have both presumably resulted in greatly increased off-take from the wild. Civet coffee farms are also expanding rapidly in Viet Nam. Together with ongoing hunting pressure, particularly in northern South-east Asia, it is likely that the global population is in decline. Common Palm Civet is a large part of the general mammal harvest for eating in South-east Asia, both for subsistence but also for trade to urban luxury restaurants. It is increasingly kept as a ‘pet’ and kept captive for the production of civet coffee, especially in Indonesia.

She is approximately 5/6 days old and has of now not opened her eyes. We have named her ‘Stella’. Little Stella is eating well for now, with any animal of such young age not receiving the proper early care from its mother means she is definitely not out of the woods yet. Vet Aon is currently caring for her around the clock, waking up every few hours to feed her and to stimulate her to pass waste as her mother would do. We will keep you posted on her progress.