Masked Palm Civet Paguma Larvata Apparently Feeding on Nectar of Mucuna Birdwoodiana

Masked Palm Civet Paguma larvata apparently feeding on nectar of Mucuna birdwoodiana

Abstract Michael W. N. LAU

Observations made in Hong Kong of Masked Palm Civet Paguma larvata visiting Mucuna birdwoodiana how widespread is nectarivory in Masked Palm Civet and other small carnivores, and, how important flowers, are Masked apparently Palm feedCivet- anding onother the smallnectar, carnivores suggest that as pollinatorsnectar may of be Mucuna an important birdwoodiana food source and otherfor this Mucuna species. species More thatfield are work currently is needed considered to answer: to

Keywordsbe bat-pollinated.: Hong Kong, nectarivory, pollination, small carnivore

La Civeta Enmascarada de la Palma Paguma larvata aparentemente alimentándose del néctar de Mucuna birdwoodiana Resumen

Paguma larvata Mucuna birdwoodiana en

Se realizaron observaciones de la Civeta Enmascarada de la Palma visitando flores de Hong Kong, en las cuales aparentemente se alimentaban de néctar. Estas observaciones sugieren que el néctar puede ser una fuente alimenticia importante para la especie. Se requiere másMucuna trabajo birdwoodiana de campo para y otras responder: especies ¿qué de Mucuna tan común que esactualmente la nectari- voría en la Civeta Enmascarada de la Palma y otros pequeños carnívoros? y ¿qué tan importante es la Civeta Enmascarada de la Palma, y otros pequeños carnívoros, como polinizadores de Palabrasson consideradas clave polinizadas por murciélagos?

: Hong Kong, nectarivoría, pequeño carnívoro, polinización On 3 April 2011 at 20h00, a Masked Palm Civet Paguma larvata Mucuna birdwoodiana, a woody lia na, in a small patch of fung shui was seen on a flowering - wood (a forest patch preserved and/or planted behind a Chinese village to bring good fortune) at 22°18'49.5"N, 114°17'03.7"E and 100 m a.s.l. near Sheung canopy.Yeung Village, Although Clear it wasWater suspected Bay, New to Territories be feeding in on Hong the nectar Kong. The civet was about 10 m above ground, just below the tree peared into the tree canopy before detailed observation could bein themade. large In numberaddition of several blooming Leschenault’s flowers of Rousette this vine, bats it disap Rou- settus leschenaulti individuals of this liana in the forest. The genus Mucuna has a wide distribution inwere tropical seen America, visiting Africa,the flowers Asia and of different Austral

Mucuna birdwoodiana produces- ia, and the whole genus is considered to be bat-pollinated (Do- bat & Peikert-Holle 1985). pearlarge tonumbers be specially of robust, adapted pale to yellow, attract pungent fruit bats, flowers such asin longrou racemes (Fig. 1) in April (Thrower 1983). These flowers ap- - settes, and bat pollination has been confirmed in Hong Kong Paradoxurus(Lau 2000). Pollination jerdoni is the of plantsonly civet by mammalsthat has been other reported than bats to behas a rarely pollinator: been reportedthe observations (Corlett 2004)occurred and in Brown the tree Palm Cullenia Civet exarillata Masked Palm Civet is reported to eat mostly fruits but will also eat birds,, rodents,while feeding insects, on therodents, flowers shoots (Ganesh and &roots, Devy and2000). its et al. Fig. 1. Raceme of Mucuna birdwoodiana, Hong Kong, 30 April 2011. diet shifts in relation to fruit availability (e.g. Shek 2006, Zhou 2008). Small Carnivore Conservation,

79 Vol. 47: 79–81, December 2012 Lau

Because the observation was surprising, against the pub the area by the photographer and her friends in that season lished record, visits were made in the following nights in the in litt. 2012). - Masked Palm Civet evidently can spend quite a lot of time feeding(Denise inChan M. birdwoodiana , presumably on nectar, when it is in hope of finding the civet again and making more observations 7to April, confirm a Masked its nectarivory. Palm Civet However, was observed on 4, 5 on and another 6 April, Mucu only- naLeschenault’s birdwoodiana Rousettes liana in could the same be seen forest visiting patch. the It flowers.was sitting On Inbloom Hong (Fig. Kong, 2). ItMasked also seems Palm thatCivet the consumes species may a lot return of fruits, to feed but repeatedly during the rather short flowering period of this liana. on the liana about 5 m above the forest floor, allowing clear the availability of fleshy fruits peaks in December and is lowest slowlyobservation. moving From up the 21h40 liana to to 22h45, reach different this civet racemes was observed on the in May (Dudgeon & Corlett 2004). Hence, nectar may be an im- sametugging plant its untilmuzzle it was among completely the flowers obscured without by the chewing, thick cano and portant food-source for Masked Palm Civets during a time of the year when few fruits are available. The observations (mentioned - Hainanabove) but of Maskedonly planted Palm in Civet Hong repeatedly Kong in parks visiting and as Silk-cotton roadside py. In the forest patch just after dark (19h15) the next Mucunaevening trees,flowers, further a tree suggest native tothat tropical Masked South Palm and Civet Southeast might readily Asia and eat (8and April), display a Maskedsimilar behaviour.Palm Civet While was seen observing walking this along animal a tree for nectar. It would be interesting to determine whether Masked branchabout 20 at minutes, about 5 manother above Maskedground, Palmreach Civet a flowering was discovered Palm Civet also feeds on nectar of other plant species, how im on the same liana, further back among some thick foliage, and portant nectar is in its diet, and how important this small car apparently feeding on nectar. They stayed on the liana for an nivore is as a pollinator to M. birdwoodiana and any other spe- other 20 minutes. Then one animal moved out of view behind cies. It might be that nectarivory in Masked Palm Civet and other- - small carnivores is more common than is documented thus far,- canopy until 20h31 before disappearing from view. I then left because of the nocturnal nature of these animals and the heav andthick returned foliage. Theto the other forest fed patch among again the at flowers 22h10 andhigher observed in the a Masked Palm Civet apparently feeding on nectar of another - Mucuna ily exploited, depleted populations in much of their rangeet al. make field observations very difficult.et Theal widely adopted method of ing theseindividual observations, until I heard23h25. occasionally Another individual the sound was of small seen alsovisual ingested examination it should of faeces be detectable to study by diet this (e.g. method. Zhou 2008) briefly moving on top branches in the canopy at 22h15. Dur- will notWhat pick is upnot nectar clear is(Joshi how Masked. 1995), Palm although Civets get if pollenthe nec is tar from the M. birdwoodiana things dropping to the forest floor beneath the civets; these - andmay at have times been landed flowers on brokenMucuna off by the civet. Several Le- flowers, which are sturdy, papil- withinschenault’s meters Rousettes of the feeding were seenCivet. flying around in the forest ionaceous with long keel petals that open up later. The calyx Apparent nectarivory in carnivoresflowers has to been feed, reported sometimes by is protected by loose hairs (Thrower 1983) which can cause Martes flavigula feeding on Cynometra M.skin birdwoodiana rashes in people (Walden & Hu 1976). When checked polyandra, a during the day, damaged flowers could hardly be found on the andYellow-throated by Common MartenPalm Civet Paradoxurus hermaphroditus feed liana and there were only a few fallen flowers tree in north-east IndiaBombax (Nandini ceiba & Karthik 2007) scattered on the forest floor. These indicate that Masked Palm et al - Civets did not break into the base of the flowers to get nectar. ing on nectar of Silk-cotton tree in Nepal (Joshi Do they have tongues long enough to lick nectar from the flow- . 1995). Photographs of a Masked Palm Civet feeding at ers, or do they wait until the keel petals open? I cannot find in- Silk-cotton flowers in Hong Kong were taken in March 2006 beformation most informative. on their tongue morphology; in-depth field study or (http://www.flickr.com/photos/denn) and more sightings of from observations/experimentationM. birdwoodiana of are captive robust, animals mildly would pun Masked Palm Civet visiting Silk-cotton flowers were made in The flowers of - gent with up to 30 flowers in one long raceme. One big liana can produce many racemes and hundreds of flowers open at any one time during the short flowering period. These attrib- vores.utes may It would be adaptations be worth to observers attract fruit paying bats more(Dobat attention & Peikert- to otherHolle Mucuna1985), but they also should facilitate use by small carni- are also visited by small carnivores and pollinated by them. species during the flowering season, to see if they Acknowledgements My gratitude to Richard Corlett and an anonymous referee for re viewing the manuscript and giving useful suggestions. I’d like to thank my wife, Jennifer and my sons, David and Matthew, for helping-

Referencesin locating the civets and sharing the excitement and joy in field work. Fig. 2. Masked Palm Civet Paguma larvata feeding in Mucuna birdwoodiana flowers, Hong Kong, 8 April 2011. domalayan) Region. Biological Review Corlett, R. T. 2004. Flower visitors and pollination in the Oriental (In- 79: 497–530. Small Carnivore Conservation, Vol. 47, December 2012

80 Nectarivory by Masked Palm Civet

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