# What'd that cat say his name was?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatd-that-cat-say-his-name-was/66543>\
**Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\
**Created:** [May 26, 2001, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatd-that-cat-say-his-name-was/66543 "2001-05-26T03:15:47Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Ringo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/779978/32.png) [@Ringo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ringo)\
**Post date:** [May 26, 2001, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatd-that-cat-say-his-name-was/66543/1 "2001-05-26T03:15:47Z")

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In the column [Does kopi luwak coffee come from pre-eaten beans?](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/010525.html) Cecil mentions the Indonesian palm civet (_Paradoxurus hermaphroditus_). What’s the straight dope on that critter’s scientific name?

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**Author:** ![Akatsukami](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ea666f/32.png) [@Akatsukami](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Akatsukami)\
**Post date:** [May 26, 2001, 10:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatd-that-cat-say-his-name-was/66543/2 "2001-05-26T10:09:29Z")

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The dictionary at the ARTFL Project alleges that the genus name _Paradoxurus_ means “paradoxical tail”: the tails of these animals (not “true” civets, unlike those that civet musk is collected from) are unlike those of related animals. I haven’t been able to find anything on the species name, but the genitals of female hyenas (family Hyaenidae; palm civets are in the family Viverridae, subfamily Paradoxurinae, FWIW) are often indistinguishable from those of males at a casual glance; whether these things are related to each other, I don’t know.

It should be noted that one of the Perfect Master’s researchers, perhaps Little Ed, got somewhat confused on the subject. There is no animal called an “Indonesian palm civet”. _P. hermaphroditus_ is the common palm civet, but Indonesia is home to a lot of civets, palm and otherwise, and the common palm civet is not restricted to Indonesia.

A number of references (obviously of such dubious quality that Little Ed didn’t bother with them) call the common palm civet a marsupial, which it is not.