BizarreAsianBearcat

The Asian Bearcat or Binturong is a viverrid native to South and Southeast Asia. The binturong uses the tail to communicate. It moves about gently, often coming to a stop, and often using the tail to keep balance, clinging to a branch. It shows a pronounced comfort behaviour associated with grooming the fur, shaking and licking the hair, and scratching. Shaking is the most characteristic element of comfort behaviour. The species is normally quite shy, but aggressive when harassed. It is reported to initially urinate or defecate on a threat and then, if teeth-baring and snarling does not deter the threat, it uses its powerful jaws and teeth in self-defense. When threatened, the binturong will usually flee into a nearby tree, but as a defense mechanism the binturong may sometimes balance on its tail and flash its claws to appear threatening to potential predators. Predation on adult binturong is reportedly quite rare by sympatric species like leopard, clouded leopard and reticulated python.