In Hong Kong, there are records of 3 native civets –
This one is the the Small Indian civet (Viverricula indica taivana), captured moving through my camera trap, deep, deep in the New Territories. A nocturnal animal, it is very difficult to get a photographic record, and I do not know many people who have seen them.
The other two civets we have here are:
1. the much more common, even in urban areas now, the Masked palm civet (Paguma larvata taivana), and
2. the Large Indian civet (Viverra zibetha). The first two can still be found, but the last one has not been seen or recorded since the 1970s, hence is considered extirpated (which means to eradicate or destroy completely, and specifically means a condition of a species that ceases to exist in a chosen geographic area of study, though it still exists elsewhere). This is often down to a change in the ecology of that area.
SEE THEM: out at night...hmmm, good luck, as they are very shy, and not common. BUT, they have a stuffed one at the Biodiversity museum that I blogged about just the other day and which is opening later this week.