Any ideas what these are? More importantly, are they local wildlife?
Thanks!
If nobody’s discovered them yet, you can call them Straydogasauruses.
Don’t look familiar to me. The bottom one looks kinda like a ferret, but not long and kind of pudgy.
Isn’t the top one a standard squirrel? I have seen them playing around in trees here, but don’t know for sure if it is imported or native wild-life.
[quote=“Stray Dog”]Any ideas what these are? More importantly, are they local wildlife?
Thanks![/quote]
Top one is a squirrel.
Bottom is a Civet.
Both local species.
Doesn’t look like any indigenous squirrel I’ve seen. They’re usually much darker than that.
The bottom one might be an albino civet, which is indigenous.
That said, there are probably big colour differences between local squirrels of the same species.
Why not just ask the shopkeeper.
Taiwan squirrel
I see these in my backyard at least once a week…Here’s a photo of one.
This one is slightly darker, but I’ve seen plenty with the exact color scheme as shown in the cage…Poor little bastards. Ditto for the Civet. I saw one last time I was in Shiao wu lai.
Watch this space. 
I see these in my backyard at least once a week…Here’s a photo of one.
This one is slightly darker, but I’ve seen plenty with the exact color scheme as shown in the cage…Poor little bastards. Ditto for the Civet. I saw one last time I was in Shiao wu lai.[/quote]
That’s what I meant by “darker.”
As for the civet, I wonder if there’s extra large numbers of them around that area, MFB? Fuxing and round that area is where I often see them for sale at the side of the road. That’s right near Xiao Wulai, isn’t it?
Fuxing? Where is that?
On the North Cross Island Highway. About an hour or so along.
Off topic, but kind of related I guess. Do people need permits to keep wild animals like these, or are they really just allowed to keep them in cages?
I went to Taipei Fins a while ago and they had a horrid petting zoo there. The rabbits and guinea pigs didn’t seem to mind, but they had two little hedgehogs in a very, tiny area. One of the hedgehogs seemed particularly terrified, and jumped and made noises every time someone tried to touch it.
Is it legal to have a hedgehog in a petting zoo, particularly with no shelter or hiding place in case it didn’t feel like being petted?
You could try contacting the Council of Agriculture:
coa[at]mail[dot]coa[dot]gov[dot]tw
I’ve been having some success with them lately.
Let us know how it goes!
Sean
The first one’s a squirrel. If the second one is a civet, why is it in a cage? Are they selling it for food? They eat civets in Guangzhou; do they do so here?
They’re for sale at a pet shop. Also have a couple of hedgehogs.
I hate seeing any animal stuck in a cage from a bird to a dog.
So why would anyone want to buy these? It’s not like you can let them run around the apartment.
Maybe you should try and find out why they are for sale.
And weren’t thousands of these civet cats culled during the SARS scare a few years ago?
The Taiwanese always like to make clear how much better they are than the Mainland Chinese. But selling wild animals for pets is not that much nobler than what their brothers are doing. Yeah, they might not eat them here, but to those animals being locked up in a cage is already a death sentence.
They do. When Jane Goodall was visiting a few years back, can you believe someone actually offered her bushmeat, thinking it would make her feel at home. I believe it was a bear claw or something similar.
The COA have told me that it doesn’t come under their jurisdiction, and that I should approach the local authority.
Mucha Man, did you ask the Forestry Commission about poaced wildlife?
They do. When Jane Goodall was visiting a few years back, can you believe someone actually offered her bushmeat, thinking it would make her feel at home. I believe it was a bear claw or something similar.
The COA have told me that it doesn’t come under their jurisdiction, and that I should approach the local authority.
Muzha Man, did you ask the Forestry Commission about poaced wildlife?[/quote]
I’m meeting them on Wednesday.
Unbelievable!