African Civets (Civettictis civetta): Non-Ringtails of Sub-Saharan Africa

A musky odor indeed announces the presence of African civets. It comes from two scent glands which are located near the reproductive organs of African civet females and males. The glands do not look like anything more than sensitive, subtle corporeal swellings. Each gland generally does not exceed 1.18 inches (3 centimeters) in length and 0.79 inches (2 centimeters) in width. The musk-makers weekly deliver 0.14 ounces (4 grams) of civetone. In the wild, the strong-smelling liquid releases go into:

• Communicating olfactorily -- at the information-sharing height of 12.21 – 15.36 inches (31 – 39 centimeters) above the ground – on rocks and trees;
• Covering competitors and predators with smells which persist for 3 months;
• Marking home and territory ranges.  

Deep growls, frightening screams, and spit-filled coughs are the vocalizations which Asian civets use to supplement predominating informational and social communication by:

• Body language;
• Eye movements;
• Physical contact;
• Scented releases.

Scientists associate their application and their context with guard-duty calls and imminent situations of:

• Alarm concerning home invaders and territory intruders;
• Attack involving mammalian competitors or predatory mammals, raptors, and reptiles;
• Avoidance regarding outnumbered or unnecessary conflicts over territorial resources and transportation networks.

They attribute less stressful roles and more common occurrences to the sounds Ha! Ha! Ha! The thrice-repeated vocalization emerges as a contact response. It is heard whenever two African civets meet in the same place at the same time with the same socializing intents. 

The life cycles and natural histories of African civets demand loose solidarity among adults whose single occupancies and solitary responsibilities change during bi- or tri-annual mating seasons. The sixty-five-day gestation begins with the mother-to-be organizing a nested den in a vegetation-shrouded burrow built and vacated by a non-civet species. She delivers 1 – 4 offspring per litter. All newborns emerge:

• Capable of crawling until rear limbs support body weight at 5 days;
• Covered with dark, short, soft fur which vaguely hints at the subsequently striking mature spotted and striped patterning.

They manage:

• Game-playing at 14 days;
• Hunting at 17 - 18 days;
• Non-milky diets at 42 days.

Females and males respectively mature sexually at 365 and 213 days. 

Physical and sexual maturity confers:

• Dentition of 12 incisors, 4 canines, 16 premolars, 8 molars;
• Ear lengths of 2.13 – 2.28 inches (5.4 – 5.8 centimeters);
• Head-and-body lengths of 26.38 – 33.07 inches (67 – 84 centimeters);
• Shoulder heights of 15.75 inches (40 centimeters);
• Tail lengths of 13.39 – 18.50 inches (34 – 47 centimeters);
• Weights of 15.43 – 44.09 pounds (7 – 20 kilograms).

It does not improve bear-like plantigrade (“flat-footed”) locomotion on hairless central pads and hairy digital and palmar pads. It does perfect:

• Denning in nestless, super-vegetated thickets;
• Eating super-decayed carrion, super-poisonous millipedes, and super-strychnine-filled fruits;
• Frequenting communal latrines;
• Hunting arthropods (especially beetles, crickets, grasshoppers, termites), carrion, eggs, figs, and small birds and reptiles;
• Identifying escape routes;
• Severing a prey’s spinal column. 

The denning, foraging, and mating habits of African civets demand dense vegetation for sheltering and permanent water for swimming. They do not involve interior, mature forests. The ground-dwelling, night-active, opportunistic-feeding, pest-controlling, seed-dispersing obligate environmentalists in question find biological needs met:

• Amid secondary-growth vegetation;
• Alongside rivers penetrating arid lands;
• At lowland and montane altitudes up to 16,404.2 feet (5,000 meters) above sea level;
• In the dense thickets, high grasses, and reed beds of forest, jungle, savanna, scrub, swamp, and woodland mosaics;
• On logging tracks into primary-growth forests.

Successful overlaps of bio-geographical resources and biological requirements may be attested by a species division into subspecies whose distribution range links with specific bio-geographies and whose physical features exhibit subtle variations. 

Bio-geographical and biological congruence find themselves attested in trinomial (“three-name”) taxonomy. African civets merit subdivision of the genus and species Civettictis civetta (civetone weasel). They subdivide as follows:

• civetta -- Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameron, Centrafrique, Chad, Congo-Brazzaville, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Togo (Johann Christian Daniel von Schreber [January 17, 1739 – December 10, 1810], 1776)
• australis -- Angola, Botswana, Namibia, volkmanni – South Africa, Swaziland, Zimbabwe (B.G. Lundholm, 1955);
• congica -- Congo-Kinshasa, South Sudan, Sudan, schwarzi -- Burundi, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Ruwanda, Somalia, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, Zanzibar (Ángel Cabrera [February 19, 1879 – July 8, 1960], 1929);
• pauli – Djibouti (Dieter Kock, Thomas Kunzel, Houssein Abdillahi Rayaleh, 2000.

Bio-geographical and physical subtleties do not make one African civet subspecies unrecognizable from another. All subspecies have:

• Beady, small eyes;

• Black- or brown-spotted, red-brown, silver, yellow snarly, unique-patterned, wiry coats;

• Broad, double-striped necks;

• Bushy, dark tails with 5 incomplete white rings;

• Chaotic-spotted backs and rumps;

• Clawed, compact paws;

• Dark-and-light, pointed muzzles;

• Dark-edged streaking from shoulders to rounded, small ears;

• Darkened chests, lower-limbs, paws, and throats;

• Heavy, long skulls;

• Pronounced zygomatic (cheekbone) arches;

• Slightly set-back toes.

They unexpectedly hold heads low and rumps high. They all know what it is like to be:

• Domesticated;

• Homeless;

• Scent-scraped;

• Snare-trapped;

• Starving.

They all need:

• Governmental protection;

• Scientific prioritization;

• Wildlife-loving activism.

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

African Civet, under synonym of Viverra civetta
in collection purchased in 1762 by George III (June 4, 1738 - January 29, 1820): Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Zibetkatze.jpg

African Civet, under synonym of Viverra civetta
Richard Lydekker, A Hand-Book to the Carnivora, Part I Cats, Civets, and Mungooses (1896), Plate XXVII, opp. p. 211: Public Domain, via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/14819895

African Civet, possible subspecies Civettictis civetta poortmanni
"April 18, 1871: Dr. E. Hamilton, F.Z.S., in the Chair" (1871), Plate XXIX, opp. p. 299: Biodiversity Heritage Library (BioDivLib), Public Domain, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/61021753@N02/9416428842/

African Civet, under synonym of Viverra civetta: skeleton and skull
C.H. Pander and E. d'Alton, Die skelete der raubthiere abgebildet und verlichen von Dr. E. D'Alton, Plate IV: Not in copyright, via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/40170388

African Civet (Civettictis civetta), under synonym of Viverra civetta
Johann Christian Daniel Schreber, Die Säugthiere in Abbildungen nach der Natur: Plates 81 - 165 (1774 - 1846), Plate CXI: Public Domain, via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/31064658

Distribution of the African Civet according to the IUCN: Nrg800, CC BY SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Habitat_range_of_the_African_civet.jpg

African Civet's iconic ecosystems: aerial view of Victoria Falls
Zambezi River, border of southwestern Zambia and northwestern Zimbabwe: Ferdinand Reus from Arnhem, Holland, CC BY SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Zambia_-_Mosi-oa-Tunya.jpg

African Civet (Civettictis civetta)
Ghana, West Africa: Alexandre Ultré, CC BY SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Civette_Africaine_(117442331).jpeg

African Civet (Civettictis civetta)
Frank Finn, The Wild Beasts of the World, vol. one (1909), opp. p. 88: Biodiversity Heritage Library (BioDivLib), Public Domain, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/biodivlibrary/6505642877/; Not in copyright, via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/19058652

African Civet's iconic faunal and lacustrine landscapes: Makgadikgadi Salt Pans
northeastern Botswana, southern Africa: ed glickman from edina, usa, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Flamingo_migration_Makgadikgadi_Pan.jpg

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