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  • 2020-03-27 (xsd:date)
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  • Was a Rare Malabar Civet Spotted During COVID-19 Lockdown? (en)
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  • On March 26, 2020, a short video clip supposedly showing the first sighting of a critically endangered spotted Malabar civet since the 1990s started to circulate on social media. This video was widely shared along with comments connecting this rare sighting to a reduction in outdoor human activity due to various lockdown and shelter-in-place orders that were implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic. This is a genuine video of an animal in India that was spotted in March 2020, when many people were practicing social distancing to help slow the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus disease. However, this video likely shows the more common small Indian civet, not the critically endangered Malabar civet. This video was reportedly taken in Meppayur, a town in the Kozhikode district of the Kerala state in southern India. Parveen Kaswan, a member of the India Forest Service, identified the animal as a Small Indian Civet on Twitter. Kalyan Varma, a wildlife photographer, also identified it as the small Indian civet, not the Malabar civet: Conservation India writes that the small Indian civet and the Malabar civet are similar in appearance. They both have a banded tail and similar markings on their bodies: At most, there are only a few hundred Malabar civets in the world, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature. The small Indian civet, on the other hand, has a much healthier population. Here's a photograph of a small Indian civet: Although the video above likely shows the relatively common small Indian civet, this is still an unusual sight given it is a nocturnal animal. Some social media users suggested that the animal could be sick as it appears to be moving a bit awkwardly and slow. This is not the first time that we've seen a rumor about rare animals emerging due to various shelter-in-place orders put in place during the COVID-19 pandemic. For the most part, these rumors have been exaggerated. You can read our previous fact check about dolphins and swans returning to the waterways of Italy here. (en)
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