Fact Check: Was an endangered Malabar civet really spotted in the roads of Kerala?

Hyderabad: After the lockdown declared by Indian Government, many say that the nature is reclaiming it spaces, with animals being spotted on the roads and the pollution levels decreasing. Many feel that there is definitely some positive impact on the ecosystem. Amidst these, a video went viral on social media, stating , "Spotted Malabar civet... A critically endangered mammal not seen until 1990 resurfaces for the first time in Calicut town.. seems mother earth is rebooting!".

The video was viral on both Facebook and twitter

Fact Check:

While we did a reverse image search using a fact checking tool InVid, we found that the video was not published any day before March 26, 2020. While the video seems to be true, the animal in the video however is not an endangered Malabar civet but a small Indian civet, confirmed IFS officer Praveen Kaswan.

He said that these are found very normally in Kerala and said that the location of the video is Kozhikode.

Another Indian wild-life photographer also confirmed the same.

According to Kerala government's wild life website in 1999, less than 250 Malabar Civet were only surviving in the state.

According to a data released by International Union of Conservation of Nature, (IUCN) in March 2015, there were 249 Malabar civets, in the India. They also marked this animal as critically endangered.

Though the video is true, the claim that the animal in the video is endangered Malabar Civet is FALSE. Many in social media claimed that the Civet seems to be captivated, which has been recently let loose and that it seems to be ill.

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