# Different coloured civets?



## genevie (Jul 12, 2011)

_Litter of Asian Palm Civet

There was a 10' x 20' cage with trees inside at the garden we visited on the cycling trip where a mother civet roams around. At the corner of the cage there was a litter of young Civets. They were so cute_

From Flickr. More pics here & here.


Are these definitely all Asian Palm Civets? I was under the impression their only colour in the wild was grey/black, but here I can see colours that look like what I'd probably call Blonde and Chocolate. 

I have scoured (or at least tried to!) every thread on this forum about APCs, as well as dozens of websites, and I haven't see any other colours mentioned (forgive me if they have been mentioned on RFUK, I know people can get touchy about not using the search bar :lol2. I assume no one keeps them in captivity if they are APCs, but they look lovely all the same :flrt:


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## em_40 (Sep 29, 2010)

I've never heard of anyone breeding them.

But I want! :flrt::flrt::flrt:


http://www.tumblr.com/tagged/asian-palm-civet










Seems to be quite a few different colours where they make the coffee... never heard of any different colours over here.


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## Neon Gliding Lizard (Oct 21, 2011)

I have never seen a color mutation like this in a paradoxurus hermaphroditus. They look very beautiful and it could become a popular thing with breeders, if line breeding was taking serious enough. Sadly, many mammal mutations happen because of either two things: 1) inbreeding. This is why we have all those "gorgeous" tiger colorations. and 2) breeding two different spp. together. If one of these is so than it will most likely be number 2. I highly doubt most civet breeders know the actual spp. of there paradoxurus. Of coarse it would be hard to tell in the first place but mixed genes just aren't any good for the species as a whole.


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## animalsbeebee (May 19, 2008)

Do not think it is very easy to get different sub species of palm civets,have been after some for a while.Whilst there are a few different genet species floating around,not so with civets.


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## Neon Gliding Lizard (Oct 21, 2011)

animalsbeebee said:


> Do not think it is very easy to get different sub species of palm civets,have been after some for a while.Whilst there are a few different genet species floating around,not so with civets.


 Thank you animalsbeebee for your input. Do you know from what area collectors usually get their paradoxurus hermaphroditus? The common palm civet, if I'm correct, has a very large - 
range.IUCN Red List maps
With this expansive of a range, one would think multiple spp. especially since the range goes down into indonesia. Here is the list of all the ssp of paradoxurus hermaphroditus:

P. h. hermaphroditus (Pallas, 1777)
P. h. bondar (Desmarest, 1820)
P. h. musanga (Raffles, 1821)
P. h. javanica (Horsfield, 1824)
P. h. pallasii (Gray, 1832)
P. h. philippinensis (Jourdan, 1837)
P. h. setosus (Jacquinot and Pucheran, 1853)
P. h. nictitans (Taylor, 1891)
P. h. lignicolor (Miller, 1903)
P. h. minor (Bonhote, 1903)
P. h. canescens (Lyon, 1907)
P. h. milleri (Kloss, 1908)
P. h. kangeanus (Thomas, 1910)
P. h. sumbanus (Schwarz, 1910)
P. h. exitus (Schwarz, 1911)
P. h. cochinensis (Schwarz, 1911)
P. h. canus (Miller, 1913)
P. h. pallens (Miller, 1913)
P. h. parvus (Miller, 1913)
P. h. pugnax (Miller, 1913)
P. h. pulcher (Miller, 1913)
P. h. sacer (Miller, 1913)
P. h. senex (Miller, 1913)
P. h. simplex (Miller, 1913)
P. h. enganus (Lyon, 1916)
P. h. laotum (Gyldenstolpe, 1917)
P. h. balicus (Sody, 1933)
P. h. scindiae (Pocock, 1934)
P. h. vellerosus (Pocock, 1934)
P. h. dongfangensis (Corbet and Hill, 1992)

What spp. have you been looking for? It would be very interesting to know where the main export is, that would give us a good idea of the certain local species. 

Thank you


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## animalsbeebee (May 19, 2008)

We have asked our supplier for any other ssp,but has not been offered any.He is now dealing with new contact in indonesia,although i dont think you would ever find out exactly what area species have been collected from.If some ssp look very similar,unless you are an expert on this species,and know the exact region they have come from, its hard to identify what you have.


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## Pouchie (Feb 9, 2008)

Especially as 
a) multiple sub species can inhabit one location
b) the actual photographic comparisons available can be VERY few and
c) I have seen plenty of species labelled up incorrectly even by credible sources such as the encyclopedia brittanica who for instance had to change their pouched rat label from C. gambianus to C. emini after I, as a keeper, alerted them to the mistake and they had an 'expert' look into it. That was a relatively easy spp. to Identify!

So who are these species 'experts' anyway?

If you know a specialist Palm Civet scientist who has been involved in identifying and naming sub species then he might be able to help lol
Other than that, we are often p***ing in the wind with captive breeding efforts. Another example (rodent again but) is Pachyuromys duprasis - an Algerian and an Egyptian sub species were crossbred so early on in their popularity that we now have a 'pet duprasi' which seem more common than pure individuals.

Without a system in place it is largely unavoidable.


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## Neon Gliding Lizard (Oct 21, 2011)

animalsbeebee said:


> We have asked our supplier for any other ssp,but has not been offered any.He is now dealing with new contact in indonesia,although i dont think you would ever find out exactly what area species have been collected from.If some ssp look very similar,unless you are an expert on this species,and know the exact region they have come from, its hard to identify what you have.


 If you do manage to obtain another ssp. I would be very interested to know which one and what it looks like. African civets are my favorite and I do hope more places get them. I would think it would be almost impossible to know just by looking at your civet what ssp. it is. To know you would almost have to know the area you got it from unless it was obviously different in appearance. So what do you think these colors could have come from? Is this an unusual thing for a paradoxurus to mutate color wise?


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