English name EAST AFRICAN CIVET
Swahili name ~ Fungo
The Classification of East African Civet
Kingdom ~ Animalia
Phylum ~ Chordata
Class ~ Mammalia
Order ~ Carnivora
Suborder ~ Feliformia
Family ~ Viverridae
Genus ~ Civettictis
Species ~ C. civetta
Binomial name
Civettictis civetta
Weight: 18-441b (8-20kg)
Height: 1ft 2in-11t 4in (35-40cm)
Length: 2ft 4in-2ft 10in (70-85cm)
plus tail 1ft 2in-1ft 5in (35-42cm)
The Gestation period is 21 months
Young from 1-4
The Lifespan is 10 years
Though commonly referred 1o as the civet 'cat, civets are not cats but are related to the mongooses. They are the size of a medium-sized dog, and at first glance look like a raccoon, with a black face mask, clean white muzzle and greyish brown coat marked with black stripes and spots. They have non-retractile claws and powerful jaws with broad, crushing molars. The hind legs are longer than the forelegs giving them a characteristic high-rumped gait. When alarmed, civets raise the 4inch (10cm) long hair of their spinal crest, which runs the whole length of the body to the tip of the tail. Males are larger andheavier than females.
Opposite:
civets are nocturnal and terrestrial, favouring areas providing good cover for lying up during the daytime They will defend themselves when threatened or cornered, raising their spinal crest to make themselves look bigger.
Voice
The contact call is a ha-hu-ha' sound Civets utter various growls and panting noises when interacting with
one another, and spit, cough and growl when cornered. Kittens have grull, cougbing contact call.
Habitat
Favour areas provicding good cover for lying up during the daytime, particularly riverine forests, savanna woodlands, and rocky hillsides. Rarely found in very dry areas.
Habits
Noctunal and terrestrial. Civets are usually encountered foraging on their own and are presumed to be solitary, moving around on well-used pathways and living in overlapping home ranges. Individuals of both "sexes mark their home range by depositing piles of faeces at regularly used latrines during their nocturnal Wanderings, and also by smearing pungent anal gland secretions by everting their anal pouch and rubbing it against suitable scent posts such as the trunks of trees.
This enables them to signal their presence in an area and avoid unnecessary contact with other civets. or many millennia civetone, as the perineal gland secretion is known, was used as the basis for perfumes, and cives were kept in captivity and 'milked' of their civetone on a regular basis for this purpose. Civets ae rather unspecialized hunters, and are not particularly quick, so they must try and surprise their prey and then pounce on it. They do not have awell-delined killing bite like the members of the cat family, relying instead on their powerftul jaws to grab their prey huphazardly, biting and then shaking it with great vigour, sometimes dropping it and then shaking it again, which may prove sufficient to kill it. Large prey is often dispatched with a final bite to the skull Civets lack the shearing carnassial tecth used by cats to slice through the lesh 'of their prey, instead holding a carcass down with their forefeet and tearing ofll pieces of flesh During the daytime they lie up in tunnels in the long grass or conceal themselves in hollows or rocky Crevices, or under allen trees
Food
Civets prey on a Wide range of species, including small antelope, hares, domestic cats, ground birds, Teptiles, amphibians, insects.of all kinds, aquatic invertebrates, carrion, fallen fruit and berries.
Reproduction
Females give birth in their second year, selecing a suitable hole as a nest. The kitlens are well developed a birth and their eyes open wilhin a week. They remain hidden in the nest for the first two weeks, but are highly mobile by one month, when they begin eating insects and meat, young civets are weaned at around three months, and both sexes are mature by one year old.
Predation
Civets will defend themselves when threatened or cornered, raising their spinal crest to make themselves look bigger. Leopards kill adult civets as prey, and so probably do hyaenas Jackals, caracals, honey badgers, genets and mongoOses are all thought to kill young civets.
Characteristics.
The African civet has a coarse and wiry fur that varies in colour from white to creamy yellow to reddish on the back. The stripes, spots, and blotches are deep brown to black. Horizontal lines are prominent on the hind limbs, spots are normally present on its midsection and fade into vertical stripes above the forelimbs. Its muzzle is pointed, ears small and rounded. A black band stretches across its small eyes, and two black bands are around its short broad neck. Following the spine of the animal extending from the neck to the base of the tail is the erectile dorsal crest. The hairs of the erectile crest are longer than those of the rest of the pelage.
African civets deposit their feces in large piles called latrines, or specifically "civetries". The latrines are characterized by fruits, seeds, exoskeletons of insect and millipede rings, and occasionally clumps of grass.The role of civet latrines as a mechanism of seed dispersal and forest regeneration is still being researched.
African civets are typically solitary creatures. They use their perineal gland secretion to mark their territories around their civetries. These markings typically follow common routes and paths and lie within 100 meters of civetries 96.72% of the time.
If an African civet feels threatened, it raises its dorsal crest to make itself look larger and thus more formidable and dangerous to attack. This behavior is a predatory defense.
Threats
In 2006, it was estimated that about 9,400 African civets are hunted yearly in the Nigerian part and more than 5,800 in the Cameroon part of the Cross-Sanaga-Bioko coastal forests. Skins and skulls of African civets were found in 2007 at the Dantokpa Market in southern Benin, where it was among the most expensive small carnivores. Local hunters considered it a rare species, indicating that the population declined due to hunting for trade as bushmeat.
The African civet has historically been hunted for the secretion of perineal glands. This secretion is a white or yellow waxy substance called civetone, which has been used as a basic ingredient for many perfumes for hundreds of years. In Ethiopia, African civets are hunted alive, and are kept in small cages. Most die within three weeks after capture, most likely due to stress. Extraction of the civetone is cruel and has been criticised by animal rights activists.
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