FEEDING ECOLOGY AND SEED DISPERSAL OF THE COMMON PALM CIVET PARADOXURUS HERMAPHRODITUS (PALLAS, 1777) (MAMMALIA: CARNIVORA: VIVERRIDAE) IN PULAU UBIN, SINGAPORE

Abstract

A loss of forests and large mammal seed dispersers in Singapore has resulted in a slow recovery of degraded forests. The common palm civet Paradoxurus hermaphroditus is one of the few extant frugivorous mammalian species in Singapore but little is known about its feeding ecology and its ecological role as a seed disperser. A year round diet study through scat analysis on Pulau Ubin indicated that this species is omnivorous and highly frugivorous, with no distinct temporal variation. Seeds defecated were viable and intact. Gut passage time experiments and seed germination trials, together with novel use of GPS telemetry to examine movement patterns of this species estimate a mean seed dispersal distance of 216.57 ± 46.33 m, and 1,353.04 m maximally. In an increasingly urbanised Southeast Asia experiencing catastrophic forest loss, the common yet poorly studied P. hermaphroditus may play an important role in the rehabilitation and restoration of forest.