page_title: List of mammals of India
section_title: Family Mustelidae: mustelids
hierarchical_section_title: List of mammals of India / Order: Carnivora: Carnivorans / Family Mustelidae: mustelids
context_page_description: This list of mammals of India comprises all the mammal species alive in India today. Some of them are common to the point of being considered vermin while others are exceedingly rare. Many species are known from just a few zoological specimens in museums collected in the 19th and 20th centuries. Many of the carnivores and larger mammals are restricted in their distribution to forests in protected areas, while others live within cities in the close proximity of humans. They range in size from the Eurasian pygmy shrew to the Asian elephant. They include nocturnal small mammals endemic to India such as the Malabar large-spotted civet. While the status of many of these species is unknown, some are definitely extinct. Populations of many carnivores are threatened. The tiger, dhole, Malabar large-spotted civet and Himalayan wolf are some of the most endangered carnivore species. Two rhinoceros species are extinct within the Indian region but the remaining species has its last stronghold within India. The Asiatic cheetah was extirpated in India in the 1950s.
context_section_description: Yellow-throated marten (Martes flavigula) (Boddaert, 1785)
  Beech marten (Martes foina) (Erxleben, 1777)
  Nilgiri marten (Martes gwatkinsii) Horsfield, 1851
  Mountain weasel (Mustela altaica) Pallas, 1811
  Yellow-bellied weasel (Mustela kathiah) Hodgson, 1835
  Siberian weasel (Mustela sibirica) Pallas, 1773
  Stoat (Mustela erminea) Linnaeus, 1758
  Back-striped weasel (Mustela strigidorsa) Gray, 1855
  Honey badger (Mellivora capensis) (Schreber, 1776)
  Hog badger (Arctonyx collaris) Cuvier, 1825
  Chinese ferret badger (Melogale moschata) (Gray, 1831)
  Burmese ferret badger (Melogale personata) Geoffroy, 1831
  Oriental small-clawed otter (Amblonyx cinereus) Illiger, 1815
  Eurasian otter (Lutra lutra) (Linnaeus, 1758)
  Smooth-coated otter (Lutrogale perspicillata) (I. Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, 1826)
caption: Oriental small-clawed otter in the Western Ghats
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