Invasion of buildings by masked palm civets is a problem, and some measures to prevent it are needed. Masked palm civets often use arboreal habitats because they are good climbers, and they may use the insides of hollow walls as a path to enter attics in houses. The Japanese house generally has a characteristic dual wall structure comprising the outer wall and the internal partition, and the width of gap between them varies. These characteristics of a wall may affect the success or failure of the invasion of attics by civets. In this study, we used an experimental apparatus consisting of two flat boards with a verical gap between them, and investigated the width of the gap that civets could climb. Three civets showed four types of climbing methods. They climbed basically vertical gaps between 6 cm and 25 cm in width by pushing the boards with their back and four limbs as the standard method. At widths of over 11 cm, it became difficult for civets to support their weight in a gap, when they were unable to climb a gap by the standard method, they tried climbing another place in the experimental apparatus, changed their posture, or their behavior when beginning to climb. The latency to start climbing and time to reach the reward increased below the 9 cm gap width and above the 17 cm gap width, meaning that a civet could climb a 9- to 17-cm wide vertical gap comparatively easily. The gap in a wall of most Japanese-style houses is around 8 cm to 11 cm. Therefore, masked palm civets could use a vertical gap in the walls of a house as a migratory pathway, and move freely inside buildings.

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The objective of this study was to investigate an estrus detection method of measuring vaginal temperatures using a radiothermometer inserted into the vagina of beef cows in pasturage. The method was compared with other methods of estrus detection: a pedometric system and visual observation of standing estrus. In four Japanese black cows with vaginally emplaced temperature^sensing radiotransmitters, vaginal temperatures were monitored at 5-min intervals using a Gyuonkei system (REMOTE). During 3 months of continuous vaginal temperature monitoring, telemetry system malfunctions caused about 88 hr (1.06 hr/day) of missed data per cow. During the examination period, 16 estruses were detected: the vaginal temperature decreased before estrus, rose on the day of estrus, and changed during the estrus cycle. For estrus detection, all vaginal temperature data were simulated according to each condition based on the vaginal temperature of a baseline (average of days) by a defined temperature amount for a defined minimum duration. The estrus detection rate, accuracy, and the overall estrus detection accuracy were calculated to determine the optimal criteria and the estrus-predictive capability. Optimal detection of estrus was considered to occur when the estrus detection overall accuracy was greatest. The optimal condition criterion was an increase by 0.4℃ above a 3 day baseline for four or more consecutive hours. Comparison of estrus detection methods showed that estrus detection rates were not different among the three groups (measuring vaginal temperature, pedometric system, visual observation of standing estrus), but vaginal temperature measurement and visual observation provided significantly more accurate estrus detection overall than the pedometric system did. In conclusion, results show that radiothermometric measurement of vaginal temperature can provide accurate detection of estous beef cows in pasturage.

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