Two endemic viverrids of the Western Ghats, India N. V. K. Ashraf, A. Kumar and A. J. T. Johnsingh The Malabar and brown palm civets, Viverra civettina and Paradoxurus jerdoni, are both endemic to the Western Ghats of south-west India. Little is known about them and in 1990 a survey was conducted in three parts of the Western Ghats to assess their status. This revealed that isolated populations of Malabar civet still survive in less disturbed areas of South Malabar but they are seriously threatened by habitat destruction and hunting because they are outside protected areas. The brown palm civet is not immediately threatened because there are about 25 protected areas within its distribution range. Recommendations have been made for conservation action to ensure the survival of these animals. Introduction Two of the seven species of civets in India, the Malabar civet Viverra civettina and the brown palm civet Paradoxurus jerdoni, are endemic, being confined to the Western Ghats of south- west India (Figure 1). These are the only two Indian viverrids described as priority species for conservation by the Mustelid and Viverrid Specialist Group (M&VSG) of the IUCN/SSC (Schreiber et al., 1989). Despite their rarity, they have received little scientific or conser- vation attention. A 3-month preliminary sur- vey of these two species was conducted from April to June 1990. This was organized by the Wildlife Institute of India, under the initiative of M&VSG with funding from the Zoological Society for the Conservation of Species and Populations, Germany. Mountains, Madurai, Tamil Nadu. In the last 40 years, there have been only two possible sightings, one in Kudremukh in Karnataka (Karanth, 1986) and the other in Tiruvella in Kerala (Kurup, 1989). Listed as 'possibly ex- tinct' in the IUCN Mammal Red Data Book of 1978 (Thornback, 1978), the species was redis- covered in Elayur, a locality in the lowland Western Ghats, in Malappuram district, Kerala (Kurup, 1989). The current distribution of the Malabar civet is not clearly understood. Most pub- lished reports suggest that it is largely a species of lowland tracts of the Western Ghats Qerdon, 1874; Pocock, 1939; Prater, 1948). It has also been reported from the elevated tracts of Wynad, Coorg (Jerdon, 1874) and High Wavy Mountains of Western Ghats (Hutton, 1949). Malabar civet The Malabar civet is one of four viverrids list- ed as endangered in the 1990 IUCN Red List of Threatened Animals (Thornback et al., 1990). The species was not recorded during surveys conducted by the Zoological Society of London and by the British Museum (Natural History) in the early part of this century (Kurup, 1989). Hutton (1949), however, re- ported this species from the High Wavy Brown palm civet The brown palm civet was sighted by A. Kumar in 1983 and 1990, and by Chandrasekar (1989) in Indira Gandhi Wildlife Sanctuary (previously Anaimalai Wildlife Sanctuary) of Tamil Nadu, and also by E. R. C. Davidar (in Schreiber et al., 1989) in Coonoor, Tamil Nadu. Because these sightings and most of the mu- seum specimens were from the elevated moist forests of the Western Ghats, it probably 109 https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0030605300020640 Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 207.241.231.83, on 28 Jul 2018 at 12:52:09, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at