Scent-Marking by the African Civet Civettictis civetta in Arba Minch Forest, Nech Sar National Park, Ethiopia

Abstract

Civet musk is one of the natural resources in Ethiopia. Much as Ethiopia is the world’s largest supplier of civet musk to perfumery industry in Europe, its Civet farming practices and knowledge about Scent-marking patterns of African Civet needs to be regulated for acceptable welfare standards and important to increase musk production. The scent marking objects and its preference were known by making 70 quadrates of 20 X 10 m² which were laid in different parts of the study area. This was done based on the proximity of the area to the latrine site, In the present study area, the African Civets used plants, metallic objects and poles to scent mark. Out of the 92 scent marking sites observed, 96.72  was within 100 m radius of the civetry. About 75  of the scent marks was observed within < 4 m distance from the path way. There was a high level of preference to mark on Bedena tree (Balanites aegyptiaca) (38%) followed by metallic objects (19.56 ). In the wild, the amount of perineal gland secretion collected from each marked site varied from 0.0047 g to 0.98 g.

Keywords: African Civet, Musk, scent marking.