Banded linsang

The banded linsang, Prionodon linsang, is a slender tree-dwelling carnivore of the Sundaic region of Southeast Asia. It is pale yellow with broad stripes on the neck and five dark bands across the back, and its tail carries seven or eight dark rings and a dark tip. The claws are sharp and retractile. Head and body measure roughly 35 to 41 cm, the tail adds up to about 36 cm, and an adult weighs around 700 g. It is recorded in Myanmar, Thailand, Peninsular Malaysia, Java and the Bangka and Belitung islands, and camera traps have found it on Borneo and Sumatra since 2006. It lives in evergreen, deciduous and secondary forest from near sea level to about 2,700 m, and has been seen close to oil palm plantations. Nocturnal and usually solitary, it hunts small vertebrates such as birds, rats and snakes. Genetic work places the Asiatic linsangs as the sister group of the cat family, which is why the family Prionodontidae has been proposed for them.