Masked palm civet

Larvae Roller ( Paguma larvata )

The larvae Roller ( Paguma larvata ) is a common in South and Southeast Asia type of civets, which has been known in recent years in connection with the disease SARS.

Features

In the shape of the larvae scooter is similar to the civets. Its fur is orange brown to gray and bears no spots or stripes, as is typical for most of his relatives. Only the tip of the tail and the feet are darker, often black. The face has a black and white mask drawing: A white stripe surrounded by two black strips extending from forehead to muzzle. Around the eyes are again white spots. The cheeks and sides of the muzzle are black again. The body length of the larvae scooter is about 51 to 76 cm, added again 51 to 63 cm tail. It weighs around 3.6 to 5 pounds.

Distribution and habitat

Roller larvae live in forests, in tropical rain forests, such as in temperate deciduous forests. Their range extends from India to Southeast Asia and China. Also, on many islands they are native, so to Borneo, Sumatra, Taiwan, the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Japan originally belonged not to their area of ​​distribution - here larvae scooters were introduced at the beginning of the 20th century.

Way of life

Roller larvae are nocturnal and solitary, predominantly residing in the trees. During the day they sleep in the crowns of trees to go out at night in search of food. When threatened, the animal injected an enemy the secretion his anal glands contrary. The striking face drawing is likely similar to the Skunks pose a warning to potential predators,

Nutrition

Roller larvae are omnivorous, but the focus is on their food crops. In addition, they also catch small vertebrates (eg, squirrels and birds ) and insects.

Reproduction

The female can bring twice a year junior to the world, the litter size is one to four. Pups reach around 3 months, the size of the adults. Otherwise, little is known about the reproduction.

Threat

The main threat to the larvae scooter is the progressive destruction of their habitat dar. but due to their large distribution area they are not an endangered species.

Larvae scooters and SARS

In parts of China Roller larvae are hunted and eaten for their meat. Thereby, the SARS virus was first transmitted to humans by many virologists view. In May 2003, the virus has been isolated from several larvae scooters. There remains the possibility that larvae scooters were not the origin of the virus, but have in turn received it from other, as yet unknown animals.

In the press was occasionally to read that civets are those of the SARS virus carriers. Blame for this was a wrong translation of the English term for larvae Roller, "palm civet ".