NEXT UP: #4 African Civet (Civettictis civetta) vs. #13 Kinkajou (Potos flavus) #2020MMM (And @PKurnath was a co-author of this battle!!! #Props #TeamAwesome #MyFirstBattle)
Kinkajous are brown, #Dogsish caniforms related to raccoons.They are uniquely adapted to living in trees: grasping with nimble fingers, reversible hindfeet & a prehensile tail from which they can hang upsidedown! #2020MMM #TeamDogsish 
In fact, because of these traits, mammalogists originally classified kinkajous as lemurs! (They do converge with primates in their adaptations for living in trees and eating fruit!) #2020MMM #openaccess
journals.plos.org/plosone/articl…
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And despite being Carnivora, ripe fruit is over 90% of their diet (Kays 1999), kinkajous will also opportunistically eat nectar and ants with their “curiously long, extensible tongue” (Redford et al. 1989) #2020MMM
African Civets are brown, spotted, #Catsish omnivores that are widely distributed in Africa. #2020MMM #TeamCatsish
A few features that distinguish this civet from others in its family (viverridae) are its disproportionately short legs, large hindquarters, and raccoon-like mask (Ray 1995). #2020MMM #CorgiLegs #MaskofZorro? #Coincidence? #IThinkNot
Their Carnassial teeth are also broad and flat: better for crushing and grinding than slicing. #2020MMM #CARNassials #TheBetterToCrushYouWith
Indeed, African civets are omnivorous. The 3 most common food items in one study were wild fruits, carrion, and rodents (Bothma 1971) #2020MMM #TinyTerrorsBeware journals.co.za/content/nfi_an…
Our battle takes place in Batéké Plateau National Park, Gabon. This is a transitional landscape where Congolese forest reaches into the savannah. African civets are at home here (onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.11…). #2020MMM #HomecourtAdvantage
Nocturnal civet has been foraging in the savannah, chowing down on millipedes & centipedes during this wet season #LovesThePedes #SlimyYetSatisfying (Mullu & Balakrishnan 2015) #2020MMM [gif is lion cub saying slimy yet satisfying]
So many new smells waft in the air for the kinkajou... but there is a siren scent sweetness........ A great abundance of figs! figweb.org/Ficus/Checklis… #BookmarkFigweb #2020MMM
Fig fruits are "the most important food of kinkajous" (Kays 1999) & our kinkajou bounds across the ground towards the fig bounty... #2020MMM
Clamboring into a gap in the thicket, Kinkajou is 10 feet from Civet! #2020MMM
Civet had been contentedly feasting on fallen figs when kinkajou arrives! #2020MMM
Civets eat figs as much as they eat centipedes & millipedes (Mullu & Balakrishnan 2015). #2020MMM researchgate.net/profile/Dagnac…
Civet instantly bluffs to this unfamiliar creature by raising its tall dorsal crest hairs into a 4 inch mohawk down the whole back! (That's 0.29 stoats!) (Ewer & Wemmer 1974) #LookHowBigIAm #StoatsAsMeasurement #2020MMM
The civet faces the kinkajou but keeps its body sideways for maximal crest intimidation! A bit overkill as the civet outweighs kinkajou ~3-to-1 (Civet: 15kg/~68 stoats vs. Kinkajou 5kg/~23 stoats) #StoatsAsMeasurement #2020MMM
Vulnerable on the ground, the kinkajou abandons his dream of figs & climbs the closest tree back into the canopy of the Congolese rainforest. #2020MMM
AFRICAN CIVET INTIMIDATES KINKAJOU!!!!!!!!!! #2020MMM
