Carnivores: Aardwolf African Wild Cat African Wild Dog Banded Mongoose Bat Eared Fox Black-backed Jackal Brown Hyena Cape Clawless Otter Cape Fox Caracal Cheetah Civet Dhole Large Spotted Genet Golden Jackal Honey badger Jaguar Leopard African Lion Asiatic Lion Sand Cat Serval Side Striped Jackal Snow Leopard Spotted Hyena Striped Hyena Suricate (Meercat) Tiger White Tailed Mongoose Yellow Mongoose
The Civet is around 130cm in length, 40cm high at the shoulder, and typically weighs around 10Kg. It is a heavily built animal similar in size to a medium sized dog. It has black legs, and the body is black and silver-grey with spots and blotches forming its markings. The forehead is light grey, and there is a dark stripe running from the forehead to the muzzle. The claws are non-retractable.
The Civet is a purely nocturnal generally solitary animal. Purely terrestrial it is poor at climbing and at digging, and it lives in vacant burrows left by other species. The Civets territory is marked with an anal gland secretion. The Civet uses regular latrine sites around its territory.
The musk secreted from the anal gland (called Civetone) was used in the manufacture of perfumes for thousands of years, with Civets being kept in captivity to allow the musk to be extracted at regular intervals. More recently synthetic substitutes have been developed and these have taken the place of Civetone removing the need for Civets to be kept in captivity for perfume making.
Civets eat Invertebrates - mainly insects, rodents, hares, reptiles, carrion, wild fruits and fish. When hunting, the civet uses its jaws to kill the prey, then holds the carcass with its paws and tears pieces off.
Civets have a gestation period of 60-70 days, and typically give birth to between 2 and 4 young. The young tend to be born early in the rainy seasons.
Civets are found in a wide range of habitats, but densely wooded areas and forests are preferred. Civets are almost always found near a good source of water.
The Civet is found in large parts of Africa, ranging from the Northern parts of Botswana, Namibia and South Africa in the south, and as far north as Nigeria, and ranging from the West coast of Africa to the east coast.
© Predator Conservation Trust.
