new delhi staff and students at the school of continuing education at ignou had an uncommon visitor on saturday a palm civet also called a toddy cat the civet is found in the forests and in the fringes of forests they are extremely solitary and shy which is why even the wildlife sos team that rescued it was surprised to find it inside an office room the civet was found to be healthy and has already been released back into the wild one of the staff members discovered the small scared civet cat hiding behind a filing cabinet the staff attempted to catch the animal but the startled civet darted off wreaking havoc in the office a member of the wildlife sos rapid response unit said the civet was obviously very scared when we reached the spot it was desperately looking for a way out of the room the civet is omnivorous it scavenges hunts down rodents and birds eats birds eggs and even plants and fruits delhis forests have two such species of civetsthe palm civet and the indian civet its very unusual to sight a palm civet simply because its so shy it can survive in a wide range of habitats but not in cities my understanding is that they live around the campus which has a considerable forest cover they are part of delhis ecological system said kartick satyanarayan cofounder of wildlife sos the ignou campus is in maidan garhi which has a considerable forest coverexperts also said there is a lot of myth around the animal for some strange reason the civet is called kabar bijju in these parts which means they dig out bodies from the grave its a myth they are carnivorous but not that dangerous he added while it is in the least concern category under international union for conservation of nature iucn which means its numbers are stable a study had found that they are hunted for meat in up and tamil nadu