Civettictis civetta
| Linguistics |
| Actual scientific name : |
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Civettictis civetta |
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| Old scientific name : |
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Viverra civetta schwarz |
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| French name : |
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Civette |
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| English name : |
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African Civet |
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| Vernacular name : |
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| Fungo (Kiswahili) ; Katumpa, Mfungwe (Kikaonde); Katumpa (Kilala); Katumpa (Kilamba) ; cikole (Kitshok); dikaya (Tshiluba); tshikay (Lwéna); chikai, chizozu (Lunda); monsole (Lingala); mubuku (Kitabwa) ; imfungo, fungo, Katumpa (Kibemba) Liobo, diobo (Kiluba) | |
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| Zoology |
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| Description : |
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Length: 130 cm (with a tail of 50 cm); shoulder height: 40 cm; weight: 12 kg. Looks a bit like a dog. Body is elongated and back is often arched. Legs are relatively long. Has a low-head stance. Ears are prominent and rounded. Has a mane of black and erectile hair extending from the neck to the tail. Its cream or grey coat is long and bristled. Body is covered with markings and with black spots arranged differently from an individual to the other. Two black bands present on the neck form a double necklace. Stomach and legs are black. Forehead is grey and muzzle is white. A wide black band, looking like a mask, is present around the eyes. Tail is bushy at the base and then becomes thinner. Four white rings are present at the base. The rest of the tail is black. Has 5 fingers with semi retractile claws. |
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| Habitat : |
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Savannah. Very common in Katanga. Often close to houses in villages and farms. |
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| Behaviour : |
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Nocturnal and solitary animal. During the day, rests in undergrowth, abandoned dens, among roots of trees or in the tall grasses. Marks its territory by rubbing its perineal glands on surrounding objects, leaving so an oily and malodorous liquid. This smell can endure for 3 months. Also deposits its excrements in piles. These piles are an additional way to mark its territory. When disturbed, it raises its mane and looks bigger. To communicate, it emits growls, screams and cough-spits.
Average lifespan: 15 years. |
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| Diet : |
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Small rodents, insects, eggs, amphibians, fish hand invertebrates. Also able to consume items that most animals avoid because poisonous or distasteful such as millipedes or rotten carrion. |
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| Life history : |
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Civets reach their sexual maturity at 7 months.
After a gestation period of 65 days, females give birth to 1 to 4 young. They are born with hair, their coat being a bit darker and shorter than that of adults. After less than 20 days, they start to leave their nests. They are weaned after about 6 weeks. |
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| Distribution in Katanga : |
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| History, Ethnology, Sociology |
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In China in 2004, to try and stop the SARS epidemic, the authorities killed over 10.000 civets during a campaign of extermination of this animal suspected to spread the disease. |
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| Fishing, hunting : |
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| Feeding : |
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| Breeding, taming : |
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| Uses of skin or other body parts : |
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By the bemba, the odorous glands are used in decoction against certain diseases. Hunters rub these glands on dogs' noses to render their smell more subtle. |
Warning :
This database was established according to official pieces of work and with the help of famous scientists. However, there might be some errors.
The vernacular names were collected in the field and in the colonial literature from the first part of the 20th century. The monks who established the first dictionaries were not necessarily informed naturalists. Therefore, errors must have been committed.
We invite everyone who could help us to improve this working tool to contact us in order to correct us and share her/his knowledge with us.
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