---
title: "Afrikaanse civetkat"
description: "Civettictis civetta — Zoogdieren. The African civet (Civettictis civetta) is a large viverrid native to sub-Saharan Africa, where it is considered common and widely distributed in woodlands and secondary forests."
canonical: https://animalchecklist.com/nl/animal/african-civet
last_updated: 2026-09-20
---

# Afrikaanse civetkat

> Civettictis civetta — Zoogdieren. The African civet (Civettictis civetta) is a large viverrid native to sub-Saharan Africa, where it is considered common and widely distributed in woodlands and secondary forests.

- Scientific name: *Civettictis civetta*
- Category: `mammals` (Zoogdieren)
- Habitats: `forest` (Bos)
- iNaturalist observations: 1349
- Wikidata: [Q241256](https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q241256)
- iNaturalist taxon: [41627](https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/41627)

## Names

- en: African Civet
- de: Afrikanische Zibetkatze
- es: Civeta africana
- fr: Civette d’Afrique
- nl: Afrikaanse civetkat
- pt: Civeta-africana
- pl: Cyweta afrykańska

## Countries with the most observations

ZA (341), BJ (167), KE (91), CF (87), TZ (60), ZM (58), MZ (36), MW (31), GM (30), BW (28), NE (28), SN (22)

## Summary

The African civet (Civettictis civetta) is a large viverrid native to sub-Saharan Africa, where it is considered common and widely distributed in woodlands and secondary forests. It has been 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…

Text: Wikipedia (en), CC BY-SA 4.0 — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_civet

## Photo

![Afrikaanse civetkat](https://animalchecklist.com/img/animals/african-civet/medium.jpg)

Photo: Tanja Milotić · CC0 · inaturalist — https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/15144315

## Machine access

`GET https://animalchecklist.com/api/v1/animals/african-civet?lang=nl` — see [openapi.json](https://animalchecklist.com/openapi.json).