[1] The scientific name Paradoxurus jerdoni was introduced by William Thomas Blanford in 1885 who described a skull and pelt of a brown palm civet collected in Kodaikanal.

Blanford noted the long foramen on the anterior palate and also that the pelt matched another zoological specimen collected by Francis Day.

A distinctive feature is the reversed direction of hair growth on the nape, similar to that in the golden palm civet (P. zeylonensis) of Sri Lanka.

[6][5][7] The brown palm civet's distribution extends from Castle Rock in Goa to the southern tip of the Western Ghats in Kalakkad Mundanthurai Tiger Reserve.

[6] This landscape is fragmented with remnants of tropical rainforest amidst commercially exploited patches such as tea and coffee plantations.

They rest during the day in day-bed sites, such as tree hollows, canopy vine tangles, Indian giant squirrel nests and forks of branches.