Heizhugou in Sichuan is located at 30° north latitude. It is simple, primitive and mysterious, and is known as "Bermuda in China". The Heizhugou has a complex terrain, high mountains and deep valleys, and is surrounded by fog all year round, and many rare plants are growing. Heizhugou is rarely disturbed by humans. Not only are there many ancient plants growing, but there are also many rare birds and beasts.
Wild animals reproduce freely in Heizhugou, and live in many types of national first-class protected animals , such as giant panda, civet , leopard , musk , antetokounmeng , etc. Civet is a rare species of psychocat family. It is withdrawn by nature and is born with a "sachet". It likes to catch mice and birds late at night.
In the same forest, civet cats will inevitably encounter leopards that are hiding at night. When the civet cat has nowhere to escape, it will stop, arch its back and sniff out a kind of mucus with a strong smell, and spray out a leopard's face unexpectedly, and then take the opportunity to escape, which is very successful.
01 has nine-section ring patterns on the tail. Both male and female have sachets, which can secrete " musk "
The scientific name of the civet is big spirit cat , and there are also the alias Jiujieli and spirit cat , but everyone likes to call it civet because it has the natural "spirit cat fragrance".
The civet cat is about the same size as a domestic dog, with a body length of 60-80 cm, a tail length of 40-51 cm, and a weight of 6-10 kg. It looks different from a cat, but it looks more like fox , with a melon-shaped face.
has brown and gray hair, with dark brown marks, and a black vertical pattern on the spine. The neck is black and white, and there are 3 prominent wavy black collar lines. The most obvious feature of
is that on the long tail, there are circles of white and black ring-shaped spots, and the end is black. When counting, it happens to be nine-section ring patterns.
The body is slender and flexible. Although the limbs are short, they are strong and powerful. The third and fourth toes of the forefoot have claws made of skin flaps, which can help it climb and hunt.
If you want to say that the most peculiar part of the civet cat must be the natural "sachet". Whether it is a female or a male animal, there are sachets on its body. The sachets opened by the female animal are square, while the sachets opened by the male animal are pear-shaped.
It is the unique aromatic gland of civet cats, which can secrete yellow mucous "spirit cat fragrance", also called "musk". It has a strong smell and lasts for a long time, but it is not fragrant, but it smells bad. It will only become a good smell after dilution and processing.
02 lies dormant in deep mountains during the day, and go out to catch mice and birds at night
Cunni is mainly distributed in the central and southern parts of my country. There are civets in many places such as Shaanxi, Sichuan, Yunnan, Tibet, Guangxi, and Guangdong, but the population is very rare.
lives in hilly and mountainous areas below 2,100 meters above sea level. During the day, they stay deep in the forest, lie dormant in rocks, earth caves or tree caves, and go out to prey at night, active in valleys, edges of the forest, and run to farmland.
civet cats have both sharp hearing and smell, are alert by nature, and move flexibly. Whether running on the ground or climbing trees, you can achieve rapid speed and silently. Moreover, it can go into the water to swim, with all its survival skills.
has a wide range of food, prey on small animals, rats, birds, snakes, frogs, fish, crabs, etc., and does not despise insects, earthworms, . Occasionally I also eat some vegetarian food, such as tender branches and leaves, fig , cloth slag fruit, sour berries and other plant-based foods, and civet cats do not refuse.
I have to say that civet cats are good at catching mice. With civet cats in it, the farmland close to the mountains is no longer worried that the crops will be harmed by rats. Although most of them are active on the ground, cicags can also climb trees and catch birds and go into the water to catch fish.
For civets, they can only exercise their skills well and are not afraid of not being able to eat delicacies.
03 Apply musk along the way as navigation, and use musk to attract spouses and communicate with companions
civets live in the same place and will not move easily. They have a fixed range of activities, a fixed route of activities, and a fixed excretion area. It can be seen that they are a good animal who loves cleanliness.
For humans, musk is a rare spice, but for civets, musk is an essential "weapon" for survival. It can not only play a role in navigation and understanding the way, but also be used to communicate with companions in a distance, and even find a spouse.
When going out to hunt, the civet will rub and apply secretions from the glands of the "sachet" glands on protruding objects such as tree trunks, wooden stakes, stones, etc. along the road, that is, "sweet fragrance".
Whether it is a cub or an adult civet, they have the behavior of "sweeping fragrance", marking territory, marking paths, and when they return home, they follow the established route.
Musk secreted by every civet cat is an identity recognition. Couscous cats living in the same forest can achieve the purpose of communication across the air through smells even if they do not live together.
More importantly, this secretion is also an important medium for civets to find a partner. January to March of each year is the estrus period of civets. Adult female and male animals recognize cats by "smelling fragrance", first smelling the other person's smell, then finding the other person "in love" and finding a spouse.
04 was chased by a leopard. He stopped and sprayed the leopard with musk, making it difficult for the leopard to catch prey
The whereabouts of the civet cat are secretly lit. He usually acts very low-key and always goes out to hunt in the quiet night, but sometimes he encounters leopards. Leopards also like to lie down at night and always wander and hunt in the forest at night.
A civet cat went out to hunt, accidentally attracted the attention of the leopard and was chased by the leopard. When it encounters a strong enemy, it runs away as soon as possible, but it jumps left and right, but has nowhere to escape. The civet had to stop and face the strong and ferocious leopard bravely.
Civet cat poses a defensive posture, bows its back, its hair stands up, and its tail is raised, shaking it left and right twice. Just as the leopard pounced on him, the civet cat sprayed out a stream of yellow mucus - musk, and it happened to spray the leopard's face.
The leopard, who was inexplicably "scheming", couldn't help but take a step back and narrowed his eyes with disgust. Taking advantage of this opportunity, the civet cat rushed into the dense bushes and ran away quickly.
However, the leopard who was hit will not be able to survive! Although the secretions of civets are only a little stinky and have no substantial damage, unlike the stench of yellow-throated mink , which will cause discomfort and even dizziness.
However, the secretions of civet cats are the famous raw material for musk. They have a strong smell and last for a long time. When leopards hunt, they are always ambushed, but they have obvious stench on their bodies, which will make prey with sensitive sense of smell notice its existence in advance and escape immediately.
I have to say that the civet cat's trick is really cruel, so the success rate of leopard hunting will be greatly reduced. The only thing a leopard can do is wait. After a few days, the stench will disappear.
05 is critically endangered! Because of musk,
. Civet cats are widely distributed, why are they very rare? In the 1950s, the number of civets in my country reached 200,000. By the early 1980s, the wild population of civets was less than 20,000, but the number was still decreasing. By the 1990s, civets were rare and became critically endangered animals.
"A man is innocent, but he is guilty of possessing a treasure." Because he is born with a sachet, he secretes musk, so he is overhunting.
The secretions of civet cats are unique and expensive perfume raw materials, but musk is not easy to get. A civet cat can only produce dozens of grams of musk a year. Driven by market interests, the civet cat was almost destroyed.
In addition, some people catch wild civets and let them eat coffee fruits and discharge coffee beans, thus gaining the " cat shit coffee " that many people are sought after. But this is an unbearable ordeal for civets. Losing freedom and having to eat coffee fruits will cause them to collapse and die.
The reasons for the sharp decline in the number of civet cats are also caused by habitat destruction and the use of rat poison. Civet cats eating rats that take medicine can also endanger themselves.
