A civet and a spider

This happened one February 2013 day near the Bansbari gate : 
Manas National Park (Assam) ~

Civet ~

In the evening as we (Yaranajit, Kamal and I) sat discussing in the hotel lawns one of the hotel staff came to ask if we had a camera – there was a kind of wild cat around the place where fire-wood was stored. As we walked in the direction we saw one of the staff tap the firewood stock with a bamboo taller than the tallest amongst us. This could have scared the mammal, encouraging it to hide. Couple of minutes later a domestic dog sensed something ‘wrong’ and arrived at the scene to announce his loud presence. This could have resulted in the fear of the hiding personality crossing its tipping point and we saw a scared Large Indian Civet (Viverra zibetha) take tentative steps from behind the firewood.

Before we could see it for a brief while and admire its beauty the blessed dog got into action and started chasing it. Startled, not knowing what else to do, I ran after them to keep the excited dog away from the civet. A scared civet - followed by an angry dog - followed by a surprised me! After a roughly 150 m sprint I saw the civet from close; scared into silence (like a child fearing a scary adult) by the now confident dog. Dog and the civet about 3 feet away from each other, with the later having kind of stuck to ground, and both of them about 8 feet away from me. The civet with its small face appeared endearing.

As I shouted – to get the dog and civet further from each other and someone else to help me do it more effectively Yaranajit scampered from behind and sent a log flying in the dog’s direction. I was scared of the log hitting the civet but it was perhaps the best action then. The long landed in the bushes and neither of them was hurt. As we saw the disappointed dog take slow steps back we hoped the civet had taken safe steps away!

Spider ~

The electric fence apparently did not prohibit this Signature Spider (Sp. Argiope) from weaving its web (Thanks to Dharmendra Khandal for help with identification). 

Thanks due to Yaranajit, Kamal and Samrakshan for the trip.