page_title: African civet
section_title: Taxonomy and evolution
hierarchical_section_title: African civet / Taxonomy and evolution
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Afrikanische Zibetkatze Civettictis civetta, Schädel, Coll. Museum Wiesbaden English: African civetCivettictis civetta, skull, Coll. Museum Wiesbaden
context_page_description: The African civet is a large viverrid native to sub-Saharan Africa, where it is considered common and widely distributed in woodlands and secondary forests. It is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List since 2008. In some countries, it is threatened by hunting, and wild-caught individuals are kept for producing civetone for the perfume industry.
  The African civet is primarily nocturnal and spends the day sleeping in dense vegetation, but wakes up at sunset. It is a solitary mammal with a unique coloration: the black and white blotches covering its coarse pelage and rings on the tail are an effective cryptic pattern. The black bands surrounding its eyes closely resemble those of the raccoon. Other distinguishing features are its disproportionately large hindquarters and its erectile dorsal crest. It is an omnivorous generalist, preying on small vertebrates, invertebrates, eggs, carrion, and vegetable matter. It is one of the few carnivores capable of eating toxic invertebrates such as termites and millipedes. It detects prey primarily by smell and sound rather than by sight. It is the sole member of its genus.
context_section_description: Viverra civetta was the scientific name introduced in 1776 by Johann Christian Daniel von Schreber when he described African civets based on previous descriptions and accounts. Schreber is therefore considered the binomial authority.
  In 1915, Reginald Innes Pocock described the structural differences between feet of African and large Indian civet (Viverra zibetha) specimens in the zoological collection of the Natural History Museum, London.  Because of marked differences, he proposed Civettictis as a new genus, with C. civetta as only species.
  The following subspecies were proposed in the 20th century:
  C. c. congica described by Ángel Cabrera in 1929 was a zoological specimen from the upper Congo River.
  C. c. schwarzi was proposed by Cabrera in 1929 for African civet specimens from East Africa.
  C. c. australis described by Bengt G. Lundholm in 1955 was based on a male type specimen and three paratype specimens collected near the Olifants River in northeastern Transvaal province.
  C. c. volkmanni also described by Lundholm in 1955 was a specimen from the vicinity of Otavi in Namibia.
  C. c. pauli described in 2000 by  Dieter Kock, Künzel and Rayaleh was a specimen collected close to the coast near Djibouti.
  A 1969 study noted that this civet showed enough differences from the rest of the viverrines in terms of dentition to be classified under its own genus.
caption: Skull of an African civet
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