Stories from our Post-Release Monitoring (PRM) team working at the release site are always exciting. Our PRM team recently lost a chicken  we had been raising as a backup food supply at the camp. So far, we suspect a Malay civet might be behind the disappearance.

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The Malay civet (Viverra tangalunga) is a nocturnal animal that primarily conducts its activities at night. Morphologically, the civet has grey fur with some black spots along its back. Its tail is also black and gray. This carnivorous mammal, though visually similar to a cat, is more closely related to mongooses. Mongooses typically feed on insects, crabs, earthworms, monitor lizards, snakes, chickens, and other small rodents. In some cases, they have also been found consuming eggs or carrion.

The Malay civet is often found in primary and secondary forests. Its distribution extends across Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines. Civets are well-adapted to man-made landscapes, such as plantations or industrial forest areas. Our working area in the Kehje Sewen Forest is indirectly a natural habitat for this mammal, so it’s not surprising that our PRM team occasionally encounters one.

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Recently, one of our PRM team members spotted a civet. The civet appeared to be quite young. When our team attempted to capture a photo of it, the civet seemed to avoid us and appeared scared. Aside from the civet, we also suspected that a monitor lizard might be the culprit. However, since the civet was found near the scene of the crime, it’s possible that it was indeed the culprit. Perhaps we need to install a camera trap to prevent any false accusations and uncover the real culprit.

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The conservation status of the Malay civet is currently listed as "Least Concern" by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). However, this doesn’t mean that civets are not at risk of extinction. Civets are often considered pests because they prey on livestock and consume fruit grown in orchards. In the end, our team decided to release the suspected chicken thief to ensure the Malay civet population didn't decline. While our main goal is to restore the ecosystem for orangutans and their habitat, we also have a responsibility to protect the other wildlife in the Kehje Sewen Forest.

Text by: Biodiversity-PRM Team, PT. RHOI at Kehje Sewen Forest, East Kalimantan