WATCH ME PULL A CIVET OUTTA MY HAT

At the time, I considered the Small-toothed Civet (Arctogalidia trivirgata) (top), and the Sulawesi Civet (Macrogalidia musschenbroekii) (lower) to be more likely candidates. Arctogalidia has the problem of a dark, grayish tail, and Macrogalidia is known only from Sulawesi, not to mention that its tail has light-colored bands (although the departing BMM photo could suggest similar markings).
Enter Erik Meijaard, an expert on Bornean mammals, and his colleagues Andrew C. Kitchener and Chris Smeenk, whose paper in Mammal Review (Vol. 36, No. 4, 318-324) proposes that the BMM was a flying squirrel, specifically Aeromys thomasi, a large and little known Bornean endemic. In their paper, the authors selected 17 known species that could possibly be mistaken for the BMM, and scored them on 14 morphological characteristics and one behavioral one, then compared the results against the BMM's score. A. thomasi came out on top, with 12 matches, compared to 4 for D. hosei. According to their table, the WWF photos were more likely to have depicted one of several squirrel species, a Maroon Leaf Monkey (Presbytis rubicunda), or a Housecat (Felis catta) than any known species of viverrid. Extra credit goes to the authors for including a pair of nice drawings by Ivan Noortwijk, that fill in the photographic shortcomings, to show how squirrelish the BMM might actually look (below).
As clever and interesting as the squirrel hypothesis is, I have a couple of minor disagreements with some of the supporting evidence the paper presents for it. The authors point out that the eyeshine of a flying squirrel is whiter than that of a civet, but photographs of eyeshines are usually quite washed out, and I regard them as poor evidence of true color. The tapeta of goatsuckers and crocodilians shine brilliant scarlet, but often appear white or yellow in photographs. The 15 characteristics that candidates were graded on did not seem particularly fair to me. Two of them, terrestrial habit and presence or absence of patagia, seem irrelevant. Much was made of the arched tail in the first photograph. The evidence that this posture is typical for the BMM is poor; a civet turning to its left could very well be captured in such a position, and the second photo shows no arching. The fact that a monkey and housecat scored far higher than a Small-toothed Civet illuminates the shortcomings of the process.

I'm ultimately left feeling less sure of the creature's identity. Meijaard et al presented a good but inconclusive case, and though I'm unconvinced, I'm sure not going to say the creature isn't a squirrel. Rather than conclusively identifying the BMM, the authors confirmed the unreliability of photography, illustration, of our very eyes. The best lesson they provide is outlined in their conclusion: “We...recommend that wildlife photographers become more circumspect in announcing 'new' species, especially with media that are only too willing to widely publicize such news. The WWF has taken the right steps towards formal description of the 'new' mammal by attempting, so far unsuccessfully, to collect a specimen. This case highlights the importance of formal description based on type specimens and a review process.”
_____________________
upper: Aeromys thomasi illustration by Karen Phillips (Field Guide to the Mammals of Borneo; WWF Malaysia)
second: Diplogale hosei photo from the IUCN
third: Arctogalidia trivirgata photo by Lim Boo Liat; Macrogalidia musschenbroeki photo by Christen Wemmer (Walker's Mammals of the World; Johns Hopkins)
fourth: BBM photos from the WWF; Aeromys thomasi illustrations by Ivan Noortwijk (Mammal Review)
lower: Iomys horsfieldi photo by El Rey Ardilla
5 Comments:
Good post, and I appreciate your scepticism. I agree that eyeshine is a poor feature to cite, though note that the authors did not rely on this as an important feature. However, some photos of Petaurista show eyeshine identical to that of the Bornean animal (e.g., see Kitchener's BBC Wildlife article of March 2006).
On tail shape and posture, a few photos of Petaurista also show that the Bornean animal more resembles giant flying squirrels that you might think: the photo accompanying the Kitchener article shows the tail hanging straight down from an animal perched on a branch, quite different from the S-shape that's more typical for squirrels. However, your point about the problems with this observation is a good one.
The high-rumped posture evident in the head-on photo results, I think, from the fact that the animal is bending down to sniff the ground. But this can't apply to the walking-away photo so... is Aeromys really this different from other squirrels? We just don't know.
In my experience photographic eyeshine can vary widely in a single individual, depending on conditions. I agree that it a rather spurious trait to use for species level ID. Likewise, drawing any broad conclusions about general body or tail posture from two photos, one of which certainly captures the creature in motion, seems difficult.
Still, I suppose I'm inclined to buy the flying squirrel hypothesis just on the basis of the strong visual hints of a patagium. I'm still rather partial to the idea that it might be an extant volaticothere.
Of course - an extant volaticothere! Having blogged about both volaticotheres and the Bornean animal recently, it never occurred to me to connect the two.. :)
I do not want to toot my own horn, but if I don't who will. When if first looked at the picture I said, "It looks like a squirrel." Of course, I have a limited number of species to draw from. Squirrel or cat, that about sums it up...
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