The picture shows a wild binturong or bearcat tied up and kept at a pagoda in Kandal Province, Vietnam.
The local monk feeds two wild bearcats at the pagoda to try and protect them from poachers. The poachers want to sell the bearcats to be used in Traditional Chinese medicine.
Actually the bearcat isn't really a bear or a cat. It's a type of civet. It lives in forests in Vietnam, Borneo, Burma and Palawan.
PHOTO: AFP
Bearcats stay awake during the night and climb trees and look for food. They mainly eat fruit. They sleep on branches during the day.
They have long bodies, between 60 to 90cm. Their tails are almost as long as their body. Bearcats weigh 9kg to 14kg and, when they aren't caught by poachers, they can live for up to 20 years. People say that bearcats smell like warm popcorn!(Catherine Thomas, staff writer)
照片上的野生熊貍被綁在越南干拉省的一座寺塔內，並由塔方負責照料。
當地僧侶在寺塔內飼養兩隻野生熊狸，保護牠們不被偷獵。熊狸可作為傳統中藥，偷獵者因此想販售牟利。
事實上，熊狸既非熊也非貓，牠是一種果子狸，生活在越南、婆羅洲、緬甸及巴拉望的森林裡。
熊狸是夜行性動物，所以利用夜間爬樹覓食。水果是牠們的主食，白天就在樹枝上睡覺。
熊狸的身長介於六十到九十公分，尾巴差不多和身體一樣長，體重則有九到十四公斤。在未遭偷獵的情況下，牠們的壽命可長達二十年。據說，熊狸的氣味很像熱爆米花！
（翻譯：林倩如）
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