Civette de Derby

Habitat loss and degradation have been assumed to be major threats to Banded Civet (Schreiber et al. 1989). Reduction in primary forest has proceeded very fast throughout the lowland Sundaic region in the last 20 years, particularly at lower elevations (e.g. Holmes 2000, BirdLife International 2001, Jepson et al. 2001, McMorrow and Talip 2001, Lambert and Collar 2002, Kinnaird et al. 2003, Curran et al. 2004, Fuller 2004, Eames et al. 2005, Stibig et al. 2014). This will have caused population declines. Local occurrence of Banded Civet in Borneo is lower in logged areas than in unlogged areas (Brodie et al. 2014a,b). The Mentawai populations are impacted by economic development as human settlements expand into civet habitat, which also may result in conflicts since this species will prey on domestic livestock such as chickens (Schreiber et al. 1989). Hunting, often for trade, also threaten this species. Because Banded Civet spends a lot of time on the ground, it is exposed to snares and other traps. The species is hunted for food by some people in Sabah (Murphy 2007). Banded Civet has recently been recorded in the pet trade in Indonesia and is sometimes captured, possibly opportunistically, for display in zoos and wild animal collections (C.R. Shepherd pers. comm. 2014).

Banded Civet is listed on CITES Appendix II; additionally, it is protected by national law in Malaysia and Thailand. The Mentawai subspecies were listed as Threatened in the IUCN Action Plan for the Conservation of Mustelids and Viverrids (Schreiber et al. 1989). The species has been recorded in many protected areas across its range (Chutipong et al. 2014, Ross et al. in prep. a, WWF-Malaysia pers. comm. 2014).