Our continued adventure with the Palawan musang

Bindi the masked Asian palm civet has become such a part of my daily routine. Every morning as soon as I get my coffee, I go into the animal enclosure where she awaits pacing back and forth in her night-time cage waiting for our daily walk. She loves to climb the large bird of paradise stalks. She explores everything.

Even after 8 months with us, she still gets quite nippy at night when her natural nocturnal hunting instincts kick in.

During the day I let her roam about the various outdoor living areas and outside of the animal enclosure. She never runs away, but I do keep a watchful eye on her so that she doesn't get into any mischief or eat any of the free-ranging various sorts of poultry running about the property and in close proximity to her. She doesn't bother with the grown chickens but the baby chicks and ducks test her hunting instincts and she did once pounce upon a hapless duckling in its cute fluffy yellow phase and it did, unfortunately, die of its injuries.

The musang is not on the endangered list, but if killed consistently as pests or food for locals, that too will change fast enough. We are also raising a rescued baby pangolin which is highly endangered by poaching for the illegal wildlife trade.

Most of the days when I am home, which is most of the time, Bindi stays with me in my upstairs office/ apartment. More often than not, it will find the highest spot to roost and will sleep away the day until around 5 pm. At night it is put in the animal house in a larger cage therein. So that it will have some sort of life I take it out during the day an hour at a time or so and let it wander around our various outbuildings.

Bindi loved her walk and was curious about everything.

Bindi is curious about everything, so we have to be careful with any toxic substances that it might get into for its own protection! She watched our daughter get into this toy electric car many times and was wondering why it wouldn't
run on its own!

Most of the locals are afraid of them when grown as they do have needle sharp claws and teeth even more so. I've heard of two that were found in a house in town and summarily killed instead of being captured and released elsewhere more suitable to their wild nature. Being omnivores the wild musang will hunt free ranging exposed poultry. Another reason the locals kill them, they consider them a pest and they like to eat them as well.

Check the archive menu if you want to find out more about how we acquired Bindi the masked Asian palm civet.

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