Mammals of the WorldLarge Indian Civet
Viverra zibetha
- Order
- Carnivora
- Family
- Viverridae
- Genus
- Viverra
- IUCN status
- LC
- Distribution
- India|Nepal|Bhutan|Bangladesh|China|Myanmar|Laos|Vietnam|Cambodia|Thailand|Malaysia|Singapore
- Realm
- Indomalaya|Palearctic
About this species
- Size
- Head and body 50–95cm; tail 38–59cm
- Weight
- 3.4–9.2kg
- Diet
- Opportunistic; a wide variety of small animals
- Habitat
- Recorded up to 2,250m in the Nepal Himalaya
- Range
- Nepal, north-east India and Bhutan to Southeast Asia and China
The large Indian civet is grey or tawny with a black spinal stripe running from behind the shoulders to the base of the tail. The front of the muzzle has a whitish patch with blackish behind it on each side, the chin and fore-throat are blackish, the sides of the neck are banded black and white, and the tail has complete black and white rings. Head and body length is 50–95 cm with a 38–59 cm tail, and weight is 3.4–9.2 kg (Wikipedia, general species account).
It ranges from Nepal, north-east India and Bhutan through Bangladesh and Myanmar to Southeast Asia and China, and in Nepal it has been recorded up to 2,250 m in the Himalaya. It is solitary and nocturnal, and an opportunistic hunter of a wide variety of small animals. In China its wild population fell by 94–99% since the 1950s through deforestation and hunting for fur and for its musk glands (Wikipedia, general species account).
Description: Wildlife of India guide, Wildlife of Everywhere (wildlifeofeverywhere.com); general species information paraphrased from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)