Den site selection and seasonal changes in use patterns by the masked palm civet (Paguma larvata) in urban areas of Morioka City, Japan

Masked palm civets (Paguma larvata) are increasing in abundance in Japan, and understanding their den preferences may help control their numbers. We investigated the den site selection and use patterns of masked palm civets, as well as seasonal changes in selection and use, in urban areas in Japan using radio tracking. We tracked 5 civets in the Daijiji and Kamido areas of Morioka City, Iwate Prefecture and identified 84 den sites that were used a total of 245 times by those civets. Overall, civets chose buildings more frequently than warehouses or the outdoors as den sites. Outdoor den sites were used only in summer. For each individual, about half of the den sites were used only once. On the other hand, the top three den sites with the highest number of uses accounted for 40–60% of the total number of uses. In Daijiji, civets selected significantly more temples/shrines and significantly fewer residential houses than expected; however, across the sites residential houses were used more frequently than any other site type. In winter, civets depended on better insulated buildings (e.g., temples/shrines and residential or vacant houses) and tended to use the same den sites continuously. These results indicate that civets living in urban areas tend to select buildings as den sites. Therefore, not only to reduce property damage, but also to create an environment that makes it difficult for civets to overwinter, it is important to manage buildings, so that civets cannot use them as dens.