The Vietnam ferret-badger (''Melogale cucphuongensis'') is a member of the family

Mustelidae The Mustelidae (; from Latin ''mustela'', weasel) are a family of carnivorous mammals, including weasels, badgers, otters, ferrets, martens, minks and wolverines, among others. Mustelids () are a diverse group and form the largest family in ...

native to Vietnam. It was described in 2011 and is known from only two specimens.

Taxonomy

The Vietnam ferret-badger is a member of the genus '' Melogale'', which contains another four species. Two of these, the

Burmese ferret-badger The Burmese ferret-badger (''Melogale personata''), also known as the large-toothed ferret-badger, is a mustelid native to Southeast Asia. Description The Burmese ferret-badger has a head and body length of , a tail length of and a body weight ...

and the

Chinese ferret-badger The Chinese ferret-badger (''Melogale moschata''), also known as the small-toothed ferret-badger is a member of the Mustelidae, and widely distributed in Southeast Asia. It is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List and considered tolerant o ...

, occur together with it in the same region. The Vietnam ferret-badger was assigned to a separate species by comparing the

holotype A holotype is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism, known to have been used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of several ...

to a limited number of specimens of these two species. As this does not take into account many other ''Melogale'' specimens held worldwide, it is as of 2016 unclear whether the name given to the species is valid with regard to earlier

synonyms A synonym is a word, morpheme, or phrase that means exactly or nearly the same as another word, morpheme, or phrase in a given language. For example, in the English language, the words ''begin'', ''start'', ''commence'', and ''initiate'' are all ...

. Pending verification, the name ''M. cucphuongensis'' has been provisionally accepted by the

IUCN The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN; officially International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natu ...

in its assessment.

Discovery

In March 2005, a living ferret-badger that looked different from all known ferret-badger species was confiscated by rangers from Cúc Phương National Park in

Vietnam Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...

. This animal died and the carcass was disposed of. A year later, in January 2006, a freshly dead individual of the same phenotype was found at the

Endangered Primate Rescue Center Endangered Primate Rescue Center (Vietnamese: ''Trung tâm cứu hộ linh trưởng nguy cấp'') (also known as EPRC Vietnam) is located in Cuc Phuong National Park, Ninh Binh province, in Vietnam's Red River Delta. The center is one o ...

(EPRC) in Cúc Phương National Park. Due to several markedly different characteristics (namely its dark brown head and body, its black and white stripe running from its neck to its shoulders, and the shape of its skull), these specimens were assigned to a new species.

Distribution and habitat

The only two specimens known come from a site that consists of a compound of buildings in a degraded lowland evergreen forest fringe (second specimen) and from a location near it (first specimen), in the Cúc Phương National Park in Northern Vietnam, in the Ninh Bình Province. It is not known whether this site is representative of the species' habitat. The site is situated on

limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...

, which has given rise to the speculation that the species might depend on a

karst Karst is a topography formed from the dissolution of soluble rocks such as limestone, dolomite, and gypsum. It is characterized by underground drainage systems with sinkholes and caves. It has also been documented for more weathering-resistant ro ...

habitat, as do other animals in the region.

Conservation

The Vietnam ferret-badger is currently classified as

Data Deficient A data deficient (DD) species is one which has been categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as offering insufficient information for a proper assessment of conservation status to be made. This does not necessaril ...

by the IUCN, and no specific threat estimate is deemed possible. The species is probably under hunting pressure, as the site is heavily hunted and one of the specimens had apparently escaped from a snare (although the presence of the ferret-badgers indicates that they may not be heavily impacted by this). Habitat loss due to deforestation is a general threat to ecosystems in the region, which likely applies to this species as well.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q10748756 Melogale