Agricultural fields and houses in Japan have been damaged by invasions of masked palm civets (Paguma larvata). To prevent their invasion of houses, we investigated the sizes and shapes of gaps large enough for an adult masked palm civet to enter and the approach behavior by trial-and-error testing. The gaps were horizontally long rectangles (2.5-10cm×20cm at 2.5cm intervals), vertically long rectangles (20cm×2.5-10cm at 2.5cm intervals), square I (2.5×2.5cm-10×10cm at 2.5cm intervals), square II (8×8cm-11×11cm at 1cm intervals), and circles (8-11cm at 1cm intervals). The minimum sizes of gaps that a masked palm civet entered were the 7.5×20cm horizontally long rectangle, 20×7.5cm vertically long rectangle, 8cm square, and 10cm diameter circle. Exploration of gaps included not only olfactory and optical contact but also insertion of the muzzle into gaps that were obviously too small to go through. When a masked palm civet entered a gap, it moved its joints limberly. In addition, it visited and explored the gap many times even if it could not enter. Therefore, Japanese-style houses, which have many gaps to adjust to the humid climate might be entered easily and damaged by masked palm civets.

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