Re: What's a binturong?

Hi Dolly

We believe the animal you are interested in is a Binturong, which lives in the canopy’s of the rainforests. Binturong ----- Family: viverridae (Arctictis binturong)

The binturong or Asian bearcat is a tree dwelling relative of the civet and mongoose. In captivity it is rarely bred or exhibited. The average Binturong weighs 30-40 pounds and is about 5 1/2 feet from nose to tip of tail. This slow moving and relatively inoffensive animal has the only fully prehensile tail of any old world true mammal (only one other carnivore has developed such a fully prehensile tail, the kinkajou of South America). The binturong has developed fruit eating habits and is a major seed dispersing species. It will also, occasionally, eat rodents and thus performs pest control. Binturongs eat more plant food than is usual in carnivores. They eat a large amount of fruit. Bananas are eaten by squeezing the fruit out of the skin which is then thrown away.

The binturong is endangered in the wild due to habitat erosion and use in the aphrodisiac trade.

Natural habitat for the binturong is in Southeast Asia, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Palawan Island.

The binturong lives in dense forests. In the wild it is mainly a tree dweller spending most of the time in the trees and it is also nocturnal. During the day binturongs lie in the treetops, curled up, with their heads tucked up under their tails. They sometimes come out for sunning. Their eyes are a beautiful brown that contract, like that of a cat, to a vertical slit during the day. When they descend to the ground they hop awkwardly but in the trees they are excellent climbers. Although most of their movements are usually slow and deliberate and they have never been seen to hop from branch to branch. They can walk upside down hanging from branches and can move with great speed and agility when they have to.

There is some doubt whether they can actually support their whole weight from their tail. The young ones can but the adult uses its tail more as a brake, wrapping it around the branch as it climbs down. In this way the tail is being used as an extra hand to steady the animal.

Hope this answers your question.

Ken Isham
Ocean Aquatics
Hawaii