The small Indian Civet was walking calmly across a road in Meppayur, a town in the Kozhikode district of the Kerala state in southern India.
It is was initially mistaken on social media as the rare ‘Malabar Civet’ which is on the IUCN list of critically endangered species. Some social media users such as a member of the India Forest Service, Parveen Kaswan, correctly identified it as the ‘Small Indian Civet’.
Even though it is not a rare animal, this sighting is unusual as it is nocturnal. Most social media users attribute the appearance of this animal due to reduction in human activity because of the various lockdown orders due to COVID-19.
