# Civets **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [May 8, 2011, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/civets/581213 "2011-05-08T23:55:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![blunt.brother](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4bbf92/32.png) [@blunt.brother](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blunt.brother)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2011, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/civets/581213/1 "2011-05-08T23:55:28Z")
“Paradoxurus hermaphroditus”…? That sounds like a Wile E. Coyote nomenclature! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2011, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/civets/581213/2 "2011-05-09T17:29:47Z")
[Cecil’s column on civets](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2306/does-civet-come-from-tortured-cats). Interesting write-up on palm civets [here](http://www.blueplanetbiomes.org/common_palm_civet.htm). > [@](#): > > Both sexes have well-developed anal scent glands looking somewhat like testes, which gives the musang its species name. [Wikipedia on the Asian Palm Civet](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asian_Palm_Civet). (There’s also an African Palm Civet. In other words, female palm civets appear to have balls too. Since manipulating glands to get the odoriferous fluids out of them is called “expressing” them, this puts a whole new meaning on _expresso coffee_. 🙂 Nitpick about Cecil’s cavalier treatment of classification: Land-living carnivores are grouped into two large associations (superfamilies): the Canoidea and the Feloidea, dog and cat allies respectively. The dog group includes most of the non-cat carnivores we tend to be familiar with: wolves, foxes, bears, raccoons, weasels, skunks, minks, and so on. There’s a variable number, depending on which zoologist you talk to, of families in it. The cat superfamily, on the other hand, has only three or four: the Viverrids, civets and their allies; the Herpestids, mongooses and meerkats (which may or may not be just a subfamily of Viverrids; the Felids, great and little cats; and the Hyaenidae, which I think is obvious. Popular usage reflects this, with “civet cat” being as common as “civet” standing alone for the critters. AFAIK there are no civets in the New World – the Feloidea are represented only by a few cats: lynx, bobcat, cougar, jaguar, jaguarundi, ocelot, margay, and a couple of others. But civerts are apparently very common in the warmer-climate parts of the Old World. ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2011, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/civets/581213/3 "2011-05-09T20:45:44Z")
Inspired by this thread… The New Honda Civet. Somehow I don’t think you want _that_ new car smell. ---
**Author:** ![Dratman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aca169/32.png) [@Dratman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dratman)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2011, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/civets/581213/4 "2011-05-14T22:13:27Z")
Wonderful writing.