Diet and Fruit Choice of the Brown Palm Civet Paradoxurus Jerdoni, a Viverrid Endemic to the Western Ghats Rainforest, India

Abstract

Brown palm civet diet was assessed by examining 1,013 scats between May 1996 and December 1999 in KalakadMundanthurai Tiger Reserve, Western Ghats, India. The brown palm civet is predominantly frugivorous, with fruits of 53 native species and four species of introduced plants comprising 97% of its diet. There was high intra-and inter-annual variation in the diet of brown palm civets. Civets adapted to fluctuations in fruit resources by feeding on a diverse range of species and supplementing their year-round, primarily frugivorous, diet with invertebrates and vertebrates. Civets mainly ate fruits of trees and lianas, rarely those of herbs or shrubs. Fruits eaten by civets were mostly small (<1 cm diameter), multiseeded, pulpy berries, and drupes with moderate to high water content, along with several large (>2 cm) fruits like Palaquium ellipticum, Elaeocarpus serratus, Holigarna nigra, and Knema attenuata. The brown palm civet is a key mammalian seed disperser in the Western Ghats rainforest by being predominantly frugivorous and dispersing a diverse array of plant species. As brown palm civets can persist in fragmented rainforest, they can play a major role in restoration of degraded fragments in these landscapes. The results emphasize the need to recognize the importance of small carnivores as seed dispersers in tropical forests.

Seed Dispersal of Vitex Glabrata and Prunus Ceylanica by Civets (Viverridae) in Pakke Tiger Reserve, North-East India: Spatial Patterns and Post-Dispersal Seed Fates

“…Amongst frugivorous mammals in tropical Asia, civets, especially palm civets, are considered potentially important seed dispersers in tropical forest tree communities [2,17]. Although they are small carnivores, many species of civets are highly frugivorous and consume a wide variety of fruits [17][18][19]. Some species of civets are largely arboreal and often feed on fruits directly from trees [2].…”

“…Some species of civets are largely arboreal and often feed on fruits directly from trees [2]. Their large gape width allows them to swallow fruits whole without damaging them, while passage through their gut leaves most seeds intact [2,15,17,20,21]. Their large home ranges (ranging from 6 -451 ha for palm civets in Nepal, India, Borneo and China) suggest that civets have the potential to be long-distance dispersers [22][23][24][25][26].…”

Carnivorous mammals feed on nectar ofProteaspecies (Proteaceae) in South Africa and likely contribute to their pollination

“…Carnivora have not been considered likely pollinators of flowers. However, many species in the Procyonidae, Mustelidae, Herpestidae and Viverridae are known to have varied diets that, depending on locality and season, can include fruit, seeds and flowers (Virgós, Llorente & Cortésá, ; Santos‐Reis et al ., ; Barrientos & Virgós, ; Roberts et al ., ; Sánchez et al ., ; Mudappa, Kumar & Chellam, ; Lambert et al ., ). Whilst small carnivores cannot subsist on the small amounts of nectar produced by flowers, there is anecdotal evidence that some species may feed occasionally on nectar (Lack, ; Wiens et al ., ).…”

How many species of Paradoxurus civets are there? New insights from India and Sri Lanka

“…They are solitary, nocturnal, and mainly arboreal (Jennings and Veron ), and play an important role as seed dispersers (Gruèzo and Soligam ; Mudappa ; Mudappa et al. ; Nakashima et al. ,b).…”