SINGAPORE: A Reddit user posted a video of an animal their parent had seen outside a window, asking for help to identify it.
As it turns out, the furry little creature nestled into the leaves of a palm near the tree’s trunk was a musang, or a common palm civet—also known as a toddy cat.
Parent took a video of this animal right outside the window – can anyone confirm what it is?
byu/tornarchon insingapore
The musang can be seen in the 14-second v’ideo appearing to look for a comfortable position so it could lay down for a nap.
Musangs are nocturnal animals, which is probably why the one in the video looked so sleepy. The website of the National Parks Board says they’re commonly found in both urban and forested areas of the country.
However, “civets face the threat if being trapped or becoming roadkill due to the proximity of the civet habitats to humans,” NParks adds.
Fellow Reddit users were quick to oblige and identified the musang at once.
The animal is especially beloved in certain South East Asian countries for kape luwak, or coffee made from the coffee cherries partially digested and then defecated by a musang, but caged production of this type of coffee have angered some animal rights activists, which several Reddit users brought up in the thread.
“Here to remind all yall to never support civet coffee trade, especially when taken by random taxi drivers in Indo, Vietnam or Philippines,” said one.
“It’s extremely cruel and unethical how they “process” the coffee. They cage the civets and stuff them with coffee beans, depriving them of their freedom and proper nutrition that they start going insane and lose their fur. Also, it doesn’t even taste that good,” another answered.
One chimed in, “This. Also, even if you don’t really care about animal rights, ask yourself if you truly want to drink coffee made with beans that came out of civet poop, because you really don’t.”
“Just your local musang chilling on a tree, let him sleep. Btw don’t support musang coffees businesses, it’s unethical and inhumane,” wrote another.
Some, however, wrote that it was Rocket Raccoon from the recently-released Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3 movie.
/TISG
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