Mammal

The Binturong

The binturong, also known as the bearcat due to its prehensile tail, fascinates with its thick fur and long tail adeptly used to move through trees. This amazing mammal from Southeast Asia embodies unique adaptation to arboreal life, adding a distinctive note to the region’s wildlife diversity.

Highly skilled at climbing trees

Smell like warm popcorn

This mammal lives in the trees of large forests, from India’s Assam to Indochina and even to the Indonesian archipelago.

Its diet is omnivorous; although it sometimes catches small prey, such as rodents or even fish, it mainly eats plant material, especially fruit from which it disperses seeds in its excrement. It is believed that the female is capable – a rare ability among mammals – of adapting the development of her embryos to periods of food abundance.

Highly skilled at climbing trees, the Binturong (originally a Malay name) is even capable of moving along branches head down. It has a prehensile tail, as long as its body, which ensures a good grip. It also has musk glands whose smell, it is said, resembles that of warm popcorn! Mostly active at night, it sleeps curled up in a ball in the hollows of branches.

The species is relatively endangered due to deforestation.