Hose's palm civet (''Diplogale hosei''), also known as Hose's civet, is a

viverrid Viverridae is a family (biology), family of small to medium-sized feliform mammals, comprising 14 genera with 33 species. This family was named and first described by John Edward Gray in 1821. Viverrids occur all over Africa, in southern Europe, ...

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...

to the island of

Borneo Borneo () is the List of islands by area, third-largest island in the world, with an area of , and population of 23,053,723 (2020 national censuses). Situated at the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia, it is one of the Greater Sunda ...

. It is listed on the

IUCN Red List The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species, also known as the IUCN Red List or Red Data Book, founded in 1964, is an inventory of the global conservation status and extinction risk of biological ...

as Vulnerable because of an ongoing population decline, estimated to be more than 30% over the last three generations (inferred to be 15 years) and suspected to be more than 30% in the next three generations due to declines in population inferred from

habitat destruction Habitat destruction (also termed habitat loss or habitat reduction) occurs when a natural habitat is no longer able to support its native species. The organisms once living there have either moved elsewhere, or are dead, leading to a decrease ...

and degradation. ''Diplogale'' is a

monospecific In biology, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group (taxon) that contains only one immediately subordinate taxon. A monotypic species is one that does not include subspecies or smaller, infraspecific taxa. In the case of genera, the term "unispe ...

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

. Hose's palm civet was named after the zoologist Charles Hose by

Oldfield Thomas Michael Rogers Oldfield Thomas (21 February 1858 – 16 June 1929) was a British zoologist. Career Thomas worked at the Natural History Museum, London, Natural History Museum on mammals, describing about 2,000 new species and subspecies for ...

in 1892. Hose collected the first specimen in

Sarawak Sarawak ( , ) is a States and federal territories of Malaysia, state of Malaysia. It is the largest among the 13 states, with an area almost equal to that of Peninsular Malaysia. Sarawak is located in East Malaysia in northwest Borneo, and is ...

in 1891. What little is known of the species comes primarily from 17 museum specimens worldwide. Only in 1997, the first living specimen was obtained and released after two months. Hose's civet is not kept in captivity anywhere in the world.

Characteristics

The upperparts (from nose to tail tip, including outer surfaces of the four limbs) are dark brown to blackish brown and the underparts (from the chin to the tip of the tail and the inner surface of all four limbs) are white or slightly brownish white. The face has dark rings around the eyes and very long, white facial whiskers (sensory hairs) and the large, wet

snout A snout is the protruding portion of an animal's face, consisting of its nose, mouth, and jaw. In many animals, the structure is called a muzzle, Rostrum (anatomy), rostrum, beak or proboscis. The wet furless surface around the nostrils of the n ...

(

rhinarium The rhinarium (Neo-Latin, "belonging to the nose"; : rhinaria) is the furless skin surface surrounding the external openings of the nostrils in many mammals. Commonly it is referred to as the tip of the ''snout'', and breeders of cats and dogs s ...

) has a contrasting flesh colour. The two

nostril A nostril (or naris , : nares ) is either of the two orifices of the nose. They enable the entry and exit of air and other gasses through the nasal cavities. In birds and mammals, they contain branched bones or cartilages called turbinates ...

s protrude widely, diverging to open on both sides. The under surfaces of the feet are pale and the footpads are brown. The feet are partly

webbed ''Webbed'' is a 2021 puzzle-platform video game developed and published by Australian, Brisbane-based studio Sbug Games. A physics-based game set in a fantasy version of Queensland, players control a peacock spider whose goal is to rescue her ...

, with patches of short hair between the footpads. The Hose's civet has a head-body length of , a tail of , a hind foot length of and an ear length of ; it is estimated to weigh about and has 40 teeth.

Distribution and habitat

Hose's civet has been recorded in a few localities in

and

Sabah Sabah () is a States and federal territories of Malaysia, state of Malaysia located in northern Borneo, in the region of East Malaysia. Sabah has land borders with the Malaysian state of Sarawak to the southwest and Indonesia's North Kalima ...

in Malaysian

, and in

Brunei Brunei, officially Brunei Darussalam, is a country in Southeast Asia, situated on the northern coast of the island of Borneo. Apart from its coastline on the South China Sea, it is completely surrounded by the Malaysian state of Sarawak, with ...

. It has been recorded in

Kalimantan Kalimantan (; ) is the Indonesian portion of the island of Borneo. It constitutes 73% of the island's area, and consists of the provinces of Central Kalimantan, East Kalimantan, North Kalimantan, South Kalimantan, and West Kalimantan. The non-Ind ...

at an elevation of . Very few field sightings of the species were mainly in lower

montane forest Montane ecosystems are found on the slopes of mountains. The alpine climate in these regions strongly affects the ecosystem because temperatures lapse rate, fall as elevation increases, causing the ecosystem to stratify. This stratification is ...

and mature mixed

dipterocarp Dipterocarpaceae is a family of flowering plants with 22 genera and about 695 known species of mainly lowland tropical forest trees. Their distribution is pantropical, from northern South America to Africa, the Seychelles, India, Indochina, Indo ...

forest. A few recent sightings exist, including a capture in Brunei (which was subsequently released) and a photo taken by a camera trap in lowland forest of Kinabalu National Park in Sabah. Another camera trap picture taken in Kalimantan may represent this species, but has been the subject of controversy. The highest encounter rate of the species so far has been in the Sela'an-Linau Forest Management Unit (FMU), a

logging Logging is the process of cutting, processing, and moving trees to a location for transport. It may include skidder, skidding, on-site processing, and loading of trees or trunk (botany), logs onto logging truck, trucksconcession in the Upper Baram, Sarawak, where fourteen images of the Hose's civet were obtained between 2004 and 2005 from four different sites in the concession. The previous largest series of encounters from one locality consisted of four specimens collected between 1945 and 1949 by Tom Harrisson in the nearby

Kelabit Highlands The Kelabit Highlands are a mountain range located in the northernmost part of Sarawak, Malaysia in the Miri Division. It hosts the Bario village. The highest mountains in this range are Mount Murud at , Bukit Batu Buli at , and Bukit Batu Lawi at ...

, suggesting that this part of Sarawak may be the prime habitat of the species. The few records of Hose's civet from across its range have been mainly from

sites, giving rise to the assumption that it is a montane species. However, it has been recorded at an altitude of only in Brunei and in Batu Song, Sarawak; an individual was imaged in a camera trap in the lowland forest of Mount Kinabalu National Park, Sabah, also at an altitude of , and one of the 14 images from the Sela'an-Linau FMU was from an altitude of . It is possible that the preferred habitat of Hose's civet is highly

humid Humidity is the concentration of water vapor present in the air. Water vapor, the gaseous state of water, is generally invisible to the human eye. Humidity indicates the likelihood for precipitation, dew, or fog to be present. Humidity depe ...

, such as mossy forests, near mossy boulders and streams.

Ecology and behaviour

The Hose's civet is both

crepuscular In zoology, a crepuscular animal is one that is active primarily during the twilight period, being matutinal (active during dawn), vespertine (biology), vespertine/vespertinal (active during dusk), or both. This is distinguished from diurnalit ...

and

nocturnal Nocturnality is a ethology, behavior in some non-human animals characterized by being active during the night and sleeping during the day. The common adjective is "nocturnal", versus diurnality, diurnal meaning the opposite. Nocturnal creatur ...

by nature and is thought to be of a more ground-dwelling nature than other viverrids. It is thought to make dens in holes between rocks and/or tree roots.

Diet

Little is known about the diet of Hose's civet in the wild, though it is thought to forage on small fish, shrimps, crabs, frogs and insects among

moss Mosses are small, non-vascular plant, non-vascular flowerless plants in the taxonomic phylum, division Bryophyta (, ) ''sensu stricto''. Bryophyta (''sensu lato'', Wilhelm Philippe Schimper, Schimp. 1879) may also refer to the parent group bryo ...

y boulders and streams. The sole individual ever in captivity ate only meat and fish and not fruit, the preferred diet of all other

s in Borneo.

Threats

Habitat loss and degradation have been assumed to be major threats to this species. Hose's civet may be intolerant to disturbance caused by

slash and burn Slash-and-burn agriculture is a form of shifting cultivation that involves the cutting and burning of plants in a forest or woodland to create a field called a swidden. The method begins by cutting down the trees and woody plants in an area. T ...

fields and logging roads is still unknown. Hunting could increasingly be a threat to the species as population numbers and trends are completely unknown. It is possible that the species could qualify for a higher threat category once more information is available on its

ecology Ecology () is the natural science of the relationships among living organisms and their Natural environment, environment. Ecology considers organisms at the individual, population, community (ecology), community, ecosystem, and biosphere lev ...

and threats. It is considered urgent to promote and conduct further research on this species.

Conservation

Currently, the basic factors likely to determine the long-term future of the Hose's civet, such as population densities, degree of dependency on

old-growth forest An old-growth forest or primary forest is a forest that has developed over a long period of time without disturbance. Due to this, old-growth forests exhibit unique ecological features. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Natio ...

, ranging and dispersal patterns and others, are entirely unknown, making specific conservation measures impossible. No

protected area Protected areas or conservation areas are locations which receive protection because of their recognized natural or cultural values. Protected areas are those areas in which human presence or the exploitation of natural resources (e.g. firewood ...

within its range is known to hold a large population, although in Brunei and Sabah, individuals have been recorded in Ulu Temburong National Park and Mount Kinabalu National Park, respectively. In Sarawak, no protected area is known to hold a population of the species. a listing which is completely inferential, based on its highly restricted range and extensive habitat loss (

deforestation Deforestation or forest clearance is the removal and destruction of a forest or stand of trees from land that is then converted to non-forest use. Deforestation can involve conversion of forest land to farms, ranches, or urban use. Ab ...

) and degradation within that range due to

logging Logging is the process of cutting, processing, and moving trees to a location for transport. It may include skidder, skidding, on-site processing, and loading of trees or trunk (botany), logs onto logging truck, trucksbanded palm civet (''Hemigalus derbyanus''). Hose's civet was first described as ''Hemigalus hosei'' in 1892 by

and it was only in 1912 that he found that the difference in shape of muzzle and teeth, as well as the obvious difference in the pattern of colouration, implied the necessity of distinguishing ''Diplogale'' from ''Hemigalus''. Like the Hose's civet, the banded palm civet is strictly

and more ground dwelling; the distribution of Hose's civet, however, is much more restricted and more confined to higher altitude forest. The large snout and long facial whiskers of Hose's civet is similar to that of the otter civet (''Cynogale bennettii''). The otter civet is known to be

semiaquatic In biology, being semi-aquatic refers to various macroorganisms that live regularly in both aquatic and terrestrial environments. When referring to animals, the term describes those that actively spend part of their daily time in water (in ...

and has webbed feet; it occurs mainly in lowland rain forest.

References

External links

{{Taxonbar, from=Q559050 Viverrids Carnivorans of Borneo Mammals of Brunei Carnivorans of Malaysia Vulnerable fauna of Asia Mammals described in 1892 Taxa named by Oldfield Thomas Endemic fauna of Borneo Fauna of the Borneo montane rain forests