Abstract
To prevent masked palm civets from intruding into buildings, covering potential entry points with some obstacles is one of the best measures. In this study, we sealed up entry points with some wire mesh, and compared how they behave by differences in the mesh size and the gauge size (diameter of wire). For the wire mesh, we used Hexagonal Iron Wire Mesh (HM) (mesh size: 8 mm, 20 mm, and 40 mm; gauge size: 0.8 mm) and Welded Iron Wire Mech (WM) (mesh size: 30 mm, 50 mm, and 75 mm; gauge size: 3.2 mm) to cover each point. All fences could block civets' intrusion in the experiments. However, they spent more time doing physical actions against the 40 mm of HM and 75 mm of WM (P<0.05) and they also took more time in biting on the 40 mm of HM (P<0.05). The results indicated that physical actions may occur linked to the mesh sizes of wire netting, and the destructive behaviors may happen linked to both the mesh and gauge sizes. Therefore we strongly recommend the choice of a smaller size of wire mesh that will lessen the chances of civets' intrusion and keep your building safer.
