Peace. Solitude. This is the life. I sighed while my tail swung back and forth in contentment and my body on the branch of the tree to rest before the sun sets and I start hunting for food.
I was about to sleep when I suddenly heard loud voices. I looked down and saw two natives with spears bickering towards each other.
“You just had to give away that redpanda, didn’t you? Now, where are we going to find food? You do know our wives will cook us instead if we don’t bring home any meat, Juan!”, yelled the smaller human.
“Calm down. We’ll be able to find one, the sun hasn’t settled yet. Hopefully. If you could shut up cause you’re scaring all the animals with your loud mouth idiot.”, whispered Juan.
The smaller guy grumbled and continued to look around. They were about to pass my tree when Juan suddenly stopped and sniffed.
My body tensed. I just hope he was just an idiot as his smaller friend and not able to recognize my species scent. Seriously, whoever created us got some weird humor. He must have been drunk when he mixed bear and cat features together. Then when he woke up and realized his error, he said, “Let me make you smell like buttered popcorn to atone for my mistake.”
“Do you smell that Marco?”, asked Juan. Marco, the small guy, sniffed his armpits and apologized, which got him a whacked in the head from his friend. “I was not referring to you idiot. Smell that tree.” Marco came closer to my tree and took a long whiff. He almost melted into the tree until he realized what he was inhaling. “Popcorn! That means.. A binturong is here!” They both looked up trying to find me. “There I see him.”, yelled Juan then cursed when my feces dropped on him. I growled and hoped he understood that was my first warning for them.
Juan started to climb up my tree while Marco stayed down to wait. “Here kitty kitty kitty.”, Marco purred from under. What a moron. I am a neither a bear or cat even if my whiskers have no idea either.
I hissed in warning and bared my two pointy teeth at Juan when he got closer to my branch. “Just grab him so we can go home before our wives kill us.”, shouted Marco. I growled and hissed and stood up on my two hind legs showing him I can kill them before their wives do. Except Juan decided his fate was better off with mine than facing the wrath of his wife. He was about to grab me with one hand when I swiped my claws scratching his hand. He cried out in pain holding his hand. “Push him off the branch! They can’t fly”, shouted Marco. For someone slow, he sure does know some things about us. Juan tried to poke me off with his spear, except my tail was already firmly gripped onto the branch for support. He kept poking and sliding closer to me. When I was sure he was just at the right spot where the branch was groaning from his weight, I made my move. I snarled loudly and went towards him. I heard them both cheering in joy thinking I gave in. Except, I rotated my ankles backwards so my claws had good grip as I went around Juan and climbed down.
Poor guy had no idea what to do and was about to back off when he heard a loud snap. He had no time to shout for help until the branch completely broke and they both fell on Marco. I took my time descending the tree. When I reached the ground, I saw both men sprawled against each other with the branch only in the way of giving them a picturesque of a lover’s embrace.
I chuckled loudly at the vivid sight and went off to find food. All that excitement got me hungry. I wonder what I’ll be able to find. Fruits or fish or birds.. MMmmm… Then after that, find a new tree to settle in.
I left the men groaning in pain on the ground and chuckled even louder when I heard one of them say, “I think I’m going to tell my wife I’m going to be a vegetarian.” The other guy agreed to do the same.
Binturongs are medium sized tree- dwelling mammals, which are also known as the “bearcat,” or the “Asian bearcat,”. They have a face of a bat and a similar body to a bear but they are not related to either both. They are related to civets and fossas.
Binturongs live high in the trees of forests in South-East Asia and are nocturnal. They sleep in the day and look for food at night. They are omnivorous, but mostly their diet consist of fruits.
Fun facts about binturong are (link: https://animals.net/binturong/)
- Prehensile Tail — The binturong is one of only two mammals that have prehensile (gripping) tails. The tail has a leathery patch at the end to help grip branches.
- Flexible Wrists — Binturongs can rotate their wrists 180º so they can grip when climbing head-first down trees.
- Delayed Implantation — Binturongs are one of the few mammals that reproduce by delayed implantation. Although mating occurs at any time of the year, the fertilized egg doesn’t immediately implant in the female’s uterus, but instead, lingers in her body until she is in a suitable condition for birth.
- Characteristic Smell — Binturongs have a characteristic smell — to humans, they smell like hot, buttered popcorn.
Binturong population is decreasing due to habitat loss, taken in captivity as pets or captured for wildlife trade and hunted for their meat.
Source:
https://www.nrdc.org/onearth/save-binturong-wait-whats-binturong
