The Palawan stink badger (Mydaus marchei) is not a true badger but a small member of skunk family of animals, the Mephitidae. It lives not only on the Philippine Island of Palawan, for which it is named, but also on the neighboring island of Busuanga. They live primarily in the grasslands and cultivated areas on these islands.

Palawan is an island province of the Philippines located in the MIMAROPA region or Region 4. Its capital is Puerto Princesa City, and it is the largest province in the country in terms of total area of jurisdiction. The islands of Palawan stretch from Mindoro in the northeast to Borneo in the southwest. It lies between the South China Sea and the Sulu Sea. The province is named after its largest island, Palawan Island (09°30′N 118°30′E / 9.5°N 118.5°E / 9.5; 118.5), measuring 450 kilometres (280 mi) long, and 50 kilometres (31 mi) wide.

Palawan is composed of the long and narrow Palawan Island, plus a number of other smaller islands surrounding the main island. The Calamianes Group of Islands, to the northeast consists of Busuanga Island, Culion Island, and Coron Island. Durangan Island almost touches the westernmost part of Palawan Island, while Balabac Island is located off the southern tip, separated from Borneo by the Balabac Strait. In addition, Palawan covers the Cuyo Islands in the Sulu Sea. The disputed Spratly Islands, located a few hundred kilometres to the west is considered part of Palawan by the Philippines, and is locally called the Kalayaan Group of Islands.

Stink badgers (Mydaus) are not true badgers, but a genus of mammals belonging to the skunk family, the Mephitidae. There are only two extant species - the Palawan stink badger (M. marchei), and the Sunda stink badger or Teledu (M. javanensis). They live only on western islands of the Malay Archipelago: Sumatra, Java, Borneo and (in the case of the Palawan stink badger) on the Philippine island of Palawan; as well as many other, smaller islands in the region.

Stink badgers are named for their resemblance to badgers and for the foul-smelling secretions that they expel from anal glands in self-defense (which is stronger in the Sunda species).

Stink badgers were traditionally thought to be related to true badgers in the (subfamily Melinae) of the weasel family of carnivores, the Mustelidae, but recent DNA analysis so strongly suggests they share a more rescent common ancestor with skunks that experts have now placed them in the skunk family of carnivores, the Mephitidae. The two existing species are different enough from each other for the Palawan stink badger to be sometimes classified in its own genus, Suillotaxus.