Again, I want to stress here that NONE of the images you see on this site of tame Luwaks are from our plantation. There are No tame or caged Luwaks on Mandailing Estate. The images you see on this site of people handling Luwaks were taken in Bali and the animals in these photos were saved from pet shop cages.
At Mandailing Estate we stand by the quality and authenticity of out Kopi Luwak 100%.
We are committed to representing the product in the most authentic light possible, because we have heard so many myths and outright lies over the years.
It’s about time that we set things straight for this little creature and for all who take interest. We have seen websites bragging pictures of Luwak and other related mongoose crawling all over the branches of coffee trees and the pictures have ALL been taken in broad daylight. We believe these pictures are staged – meaning they drag out the poor mongoose out of the sack, cage, tree hollow, etc (because that’s the only place they would be by day) and pretend they are feeding on coffee cherries.
Being in the middle of the jungle - Mandailing Estate has a hell of a lot of Luwak on the plantation and for the past eight years we have tried our darndest to spot one in daylight hours - no luck. They are absolutely nocturnal. Trying to spot one at night time is not much easier. These things are like ghosts; with lighting quick reflexes, acute senses of smell and an incredible ability to disappear.
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An example of a faked
Luwak photo.
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We are about to invest in a number of camera traps in hope to catch them doing what we like them to do best but otherwise its almost impossible to catch one feeding freely on a coffee tree. First of all they are very timid. Secondly very nocturnal and are creatures that only socialize and feed after office hours. Most of the night they are very active and when dawn approaches it’s good night and they go back to their hollow and sleep all day. I learnt the ins and outs of a Luwak the hard way; I lived with four of them in Bali (sharing my bedroom) for nearly twelve months. I came across them in a pet shop in one of the cities when they were young. I felt sorry for them cramped up in a small cage and I could not deny them a new home. They decided to make an old sub-woofer speaker their home and I got the opportunity to observe them at close quarters.
After getting to know them better these guys would totally, and I mean absolutely disappear when first light appeared in the early hours of the morning. They would then sleep all day, not a movement, nor a mongoose murmur until late afternoon. All the photos you see on this site were taken at night with a flash.
So here’s their story, around five o’clock - about one hour before sundown each day, the first movements would be noticed. Very very timid at first and then their curiosity would get the better of them. They would emerge and emerge they would in a big way. They would inspect everything and anything including me. Once they get started they are hyperactive little devils. As the afternoon light would fade and it darkened their movements became more rapid and erratic racing each other to inspect the next thing that could be discovered.
My bedroom was also my office and they seemed to find things I didn’t know were there or things I had lost and misplaced. Eventually the nights became so noisy that they got a room of there own, next door. Right across the hallway in a front room which faced a large mango tree.
Each night they would all disappear - at first I had no idea how they got out or where they went - but they were not in the room. Come morning I would find them all curled up together sleeping like babies. I did stake out the place to find where they got out. It was a small vent near the ceiling. They climbed up the thin chord from the venetian blinds and then onto the vent. Whatever they did all night was so exhausting that they were absolutely dead to the world by day no noise would wake them.
Our plantation workers collect a lot of Luwak skat in the higher areas of our plantation. For just over eight years we have tried to spot one at night and tried to find where they sleep. With our latest plan to use camera-traps to catch a few in the act – we will post the results on the website as soon as have some footage.
