Jack Hanna at Tarrytown Music Hall

Jack Hanna at the Tarrytown Music Hall

This creature is an amiable palm civet, an animal which has gotten a bad reputation as it is likely the source of SARS.  Bred in China as a cuisine delicacy, the virus likely spread to a human during butchering.  Upon the recent SARS outbreak, all civets in captivity and many in the wild were eradicated, meaning it is unknown how many now exist.