Burmese ferret-badger

The Burmese ferret-badger, Melogale personata, also known as the large-toothed ferret-badger, is a mustelid native to Southeast Asia. It was the type species of its genus when Isidore Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire described it in 1831, choosing the species name for its striking facial pattern. Little is known about it, since many published descriptions rest on dead animals or camera-trap records. It has a head and body length of 35 to 40 centimetres, a tail of 15 to 21 centimetres and a weight of 1.5 to 3 kilograms, with fawn to dark brown fur, a white dorsal stripe and black and white face patches unique to each individual. It looks much like the Chinese ferret-badger and can be reliably told apart only by its teeth. Recorded from north-eastern India to Cambodia and Yunnan, it inhabits evergreen forests and is reported more often in disturbed habitat than in old-growth forest. It is listed as Least Concern, and although it is not targeted by hunters it has been caught in traps set for other species.