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12
Small Carnivore Conservation, Vol. 50: 12–13, July 2014
the impossibility of a ‘partial albino’; van Grouw 2013), so the
nose (and eyes, the colour of which were not visible in this ani-
mal) then shows pink; while ino individuals produce normal
so the bare parts are also strongly pinkish (van Grouw 2013).
On 13 September 2013, at around 23h30, I sighted an unusu-
al-looking civet while we were walking on a road in Amboli
recorded elevation 749 m). It was resting on a tree about 5 m
above the ground, in an area of semi-evergreen and moist de-
ciduous forest. The sighting lasted 20 minutes and the animal
was photographed with a digital SLR camera (Nikon D800).
The individual (Figs 1–2) had almost completely white fur all
over, a prominently black nose, and dark pink ear skin. It ap-
peared to be fully grown.
Among the mammals known from this part of India, the
-
Paradoxurus palm civet. Two species of this genus
occur in this part of India. Brown Palm Civet P. jerdoni is en-
demic to the Western Ghats, where it occurs in wet evergreen
forests and adjacent coffee estates at altitudes of 500–2,000
m asl (Rajamani et al. 2002). Bhosale et al. (2013) recorded
Brown Palm Civet in Amboli and in Chandoli National Park,
Palm Civet P. hermaphroditus occurs widely in India (and else-
where in tropical Asia) but is usually, in this part of its range,
in more deciduous and/or open habitats than wet evergreen
forest (e.g. Mudappa et al. 2007).
Typical-coloured individuals of the two species are readily
legs), with dorsal pelage that may be grizzled at times (Pocock
1933, Hutton 1949, Bhosale et al. 2013; Fig. 3). In terms of char-
acters potentially visible on a white-pelted animal, Brown Palm
Civet has uniformly shortish fur throughout its body, vibrissae
that may appear black or dark brown, rounded ears and an
abruptly pointed snout (Blanford 1855, 1888–1891, D. Mudappa
in litt. 2014). The uniformly rather short fur, the shape of ears,
head and snout, and the colour of vibrissae of this white civet
resemble Brown Palm Civet rather than Common Palm Civet.
The nomenclature of animals missing part or all their
normal pigmentation is confused and inconsistent. van Grouw
but pointed out that the pigmentation process in mammals is
comparable to that in birds. Most aberrantly white animals are
casually referred to as ‘albino’ or ‘partial albino’, but the former
is often incorrect for the animal in question and the latter do
white, whitish or partly white animal (van Grouw 2013). This
animal’s black nose (Figs 1–2) shows that it is not an albino or
an ino: albino animals lack melanin pigments entirely (hence,
A record of a white-coated Brown Palm Civet Paradoxurus jerdoni
H. CHUNEKAR
Abstract
Brown Palm Civet Paradoxurus jerdoni is endemic to the Western Ghats of India. An entirely white-coated individual sighted at
-
tainly not an albino.
Keywords: albinism, Amboli, dilution, endemic, leucism, pelage aberration
Fig. 1. White-coated Brown Palm Civet Paradoxurus jerdoni resng on a tree
in Amboli, Maharashtra, India, on 13 September 2013 (Photo: Kedar Bhat).
Fig. 2. White-coated Brown Palm Civet Paradoxurus jerdoni resng on a
tree in Amboli, Maharashtra, India, on 13 September 2013. This angle
of viewing shows the slightly pigmented fur behind the ears, strongly
suggesng that the animal is an example of diluon rather than of any of
the other potenal causes of pale pelage (Photo: Kedar Bhat).
13 Small Carnivore Conservation, Vol. 50, July 2014
White-coated Brown Palm Civet
Moreover, the area behind the ears, among the darkest parts in
typical Brown Palm Civets, seems to have some pigment (Fig.
2). Thus, this aberrant animal seems likely to be a form of dilu-
tion, whereby the animals are brown to whitish through re-
duction of the amount of melanin (van Grouw 2013). The ani-
greying, because in both those sorts of animals the aberrant
hairs are pure white whilst the pigmented hairs are of normal
colour (van Grouw 2013): the hairs behind this animal’s ears
appear so nearly uniformly clean white, particularly because
‘brown’ mutations approaching white in colour result from
bleaching by sunlight (van Grouw 2013), a process unlikely in
the almost wholly nocturnal palm civets.
Aberrantly pale individuals have been recorded in various
other species of the family Viverridae (e.g. Delibes et al. 2013,
Gaubert & Dufour 2013). Hitherto no records of white Brown
Palm Civets have been noted, in contrast to Common Palm Civ-
et (e.g. Sharma 2004, Eaton et al. 2010). White-pelted individu-
als are presumably susceptible to predation because of their
conspicuous colour, although this may be less of a problem for
these nocturnal animals.
Acknowledgements
I thank Kedar Bhat for photographing and sharing the photographs of
the white-coated Brown Palm Civet. I am thankful to Girish A. Punjabi
a Brown Palm Civet and for improving the manuscript. I thank Shruti
Alekar and Mihir Mahajan for reviewing a version of the manuscript
to use photograph of the typically coloured Brown Palm Civet. I am
also thankful to Amod Zambre for the photograph of Common Palm
Civet. I thank the reviewers, especially Hein van Grouw, for comments
useful in improving the manuscript.
References
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documentation of Brown Palm Civet Paradoxurus jerdoni in Ma-
harashtra, India, north of its known range. Small Carnivore Con-
servation 49: 37–39.
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logical Society of London ‘1885’: 612–613.
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& Duckworth, J. W. 2010. Recent records of the Javan Small-
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11+12, Sangeeta society, Vanaz corner, Kothrud,
Pune-411038, Maharashtra, India.
Email: hrishi_chunekar@yahoo.com
Fig. 3. Brown Palm Civet Paradoxurus jerdoni, Valparai, Tamil Nadu,
India, on 31 October 2007, showing pelage typical of the species (Photo:
Kalyan Varma).
Fig. 4. Common Palm Civet Paradoxurus hermaphroditus, Mulshi, Pune,
Maharashtra, India, on 15 September 2009 (Photo: Amod Zambre).
