Photos show a large female Masked Palm Civet feeding on the edible bracts surrounding the male flowers of a Freycinetia climber.
The location is peat swamp forest at the Kinabatangan Wetland Resort near Kg Abai in East Sabah.
Freycientia climbers are common in this peat swamp forest and are known to be pollinated by Flying Foxes which feed on the bracts surrounding the male flowers. However this is the first known record of a civet pollinating a Freycinetia.
The face of the civet is covered in white pollen from the male stamens hence the strange appearance.
Freycinetia is a genus in the Pandanaceae (Pandanus palms) with 24 species in Borneo.
Freycinetia grows as a root climbing liana normally up a host tree in forest, from the lowlands up into the mountains,
Stone (1970) 24 spp Freycinetia in Borneo
