Ferret badgers: Our little-known mustelids

Before 2008, nobody knew Bangladesh was home to ferret badgers. Only after hunters managed to capture a queer-looking mammal near a tea garden in the Moulvibazar district did the creature grab the media's attention. 

Tracking down its identity proved to be a puzzling task for scientists. After much debate and discussion, they finally identified the animal as a large-toothed ferret badger. 

And until recently, this was the only evidence of ferret badgers existing in Bangladesh, so much so that the animal did not even make it to the list of the country's mammals compiled by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) in 2015. 

It was as if the animal had vanished into thin air.

Ferret badgers form a small group of five species under the genus Melogale — all restricted to Asia, ranging from China in the east to Nepal in the west and Indonesia in the south. Even internationally, very few people know about the existence of these mammals. 

The latest ferret badger species, the Vietnamese ferret badger, was described by science only in 2011, so no wonder it is little-known in Bangladesh. 

The Bornean ferret badger is threatend extinction due to illegal hunting and pet trade

By looks and habits, these animals are unique creatures. 

They are not actually ferrets, but close relatives of badgers. First of all, ferret badgers are nowhere close to carnivorous mammals — a group better represented by cats and dogs, tigers and wolves, etc. 

They are even smaller than badgers, growing only to the size of ferrets. Ferret badgers feature a snout like a large rat, a body like a mongoose, a white stripe on its back like a skunk and a tail like a brush. 

Secondly, the animals do not match our imagination of carnivorous mammals, busy taking down and tearing apart prey larger than their size — a  practice even known among ferrets, another small carnivorous mammal that superficially resembles ferret badgers but is adept at hunting. 

The ferret badger's diet consists mostly of insects and worms. And they belong to mixed evergreen forests. That is all we know about them. 

These brush-tailed little carnivores have successfully eluded a complete scientific understanding. 

"In the wild, hardly anyone goes out by night and watches what these animals do," William Duckworth, a coordinator of the Small Carnivores Specialist Group of the global conservation authority IUCN, pointed out their little-known status in a Mongabay report last year.  

There is no confirmed record of the small-toothed ferret badger in Bangladesh

Almost all of the evidence on ferret badgers were discovered by chance. A large number of the records have been sourced from pet markets and the wildlife trade, most of which are unregulated, particularly running rampant in the Indochinese countries, and are now alarmingly fueled by the burgeoning online marketplaces. 

Although weighing only about a maximum of 2kg, ferret badgers are not safe from modern hunting techniques like wire traps. The very first specimen of the Vietnamese ferret badgers that reached scientists was a rescued animal, wounded from noose traps made of steel cables. 

To date, iNaturalist, a global website that stores observations on wildlife of all sorts, has less than 50 entries on two species of ferret badgers in Bangladesh, namely the large-toothed and the small-toothed ferret badgers. 

Almost half of these were roadkills, specimens on sale in some pet markets or museum samples. 

The most comprehensive survey on the mammals of the Chattogram Hill Tracts was carried out by the Creative Conservation Alliance, who only managed to trace its existence thanks to the tribesmen who hunted down a couple of specimens. 

Dr Monirul H Khan, in his lexicon on the wildlife of Bangladesh, Photographic Guide to the Wildlife of Bangladesh, reported another rescued animal from Kulaura, Moulvibazar. 

Bangladesh has yet to have any confirmed evidence on the small-toothed ferret badgers.

Although seldom seen, ferret badgers do live in our eastern forests. Remotely placed camera traps, a technology that comes with a sensor that can track any movement and enables the photographing of rare animals, have made it snap pictures of these creatures. There has been an increase in in situ observations of ferret badgers. 

There is no confirmed record of the small-toothed ferret badger in Bangladesh

But camera traps need to be placed in the right places. "Ferret badgers prefer wet streambeds strewn with boulders and stones,'' Duckworth remarked on the correct camera trap placement to capture photos of these animals. 

I followed the guideline in my camera-trapping surveys and the results were astounding. 

Ferret badgers are a sure shot in any eastern forest that meets Duckworth's criteria. 

Whenever you trek any streams, be it in Sitakunda, Hazarikhil, or Sreemangal, be sure that the ferret badgers ferret on the same trail! We need to apply modified techniques to understand these enigmatic animals. 

We also need to accept that the absence of evidence is not the evidence of absence.