Owston’s Civet occurs in a variety of habitats, all within evergreen biomes, linked by the common feature of a non-harsh dry season. It is, or was, much more widely spread in Viet Nam than in Lao PDR, reflecting the much larger area of Viet Nam with significant humidity in the driest months (i.e., lacking a harsh dry season). The pattern of locality records in Lao PDR where the species is evidently naturally localised quite clearly shows that the species has a narrow habitat usage. Areas with a non-harsh dry season in Lao PDR are restricted (Timmins and Trinh 2001). The areas providing high encounter rates of Owston's Civet in Lao PDR are adjacent to low sections of the Annamite spine (the north-south mountain range forming much of the international border between Lao PDR and Viet Nam) that allow moisture-bearing winds from Viet Nam during Lao PDR's dry season, which in the rest of the country is harsh at lower and mid altitudes (Timmins and Trinh 2001, Duckworth et al. 2010, Sivilay et al. 2011, Coudrat et al. 2014). Many other evergreen forest survey areas across the country lack records, despite the use therein of methods suitable to find the species, at adequate intensities, and the finding of multiple hunting-sensitive ground-dwelling mammals, It is essentially absent from the predominant evergreen forest types of Lao PDR, lowland, mid-elevation and lower montane semi-evergreen (dry evergreen) and lower montane forests. This is based on spotlighting in several survey areas supporting these forest types in the early - mid 1990s (Duckworth 1997) and on camera-trapping in the 21st century in Phou Sithon, Nakai-Nam Theun National Biodiversity Conservation Area (NBCA), Laving-Laveun NBCA, Nam Kading NBCA, Phou Chomvoy Provincial Protected Area and Xe Sap NBCA (Duckworth et al. 2010, Coudrat et al. 2014, Gray et al. 2014b, R. J. Timmins pers. comm. 2014); the hunting intensity in all of these at the time of camera-trapping was equivalent to Pu Mat before (sometimes well before) 1998, about when the species was still readily detected by camera-traps. It is evidently locally present in Lao PDR below 1,000 m where wet evergreen forest occurs, but the absence of records from Laving-Laveun NBCA, which holds various other wet evergreen forest species, suggests that Owston's Civet is particularly sensitive to climatic conditions. It also occurs in montane evergreen forest (over 1,000 m), but is probably equally restricted by climatic conditions in its geographic and altitudinal range. Montane areas with wet climates, such as various high peaks in eastern parts of Lao PDR, appear to support the species over a relatively wide range (e.g., Xe Sap NBCA; Gray et al. 2014b), whilst peaks further west (greater rain-shadowing during the winter) appear to support more localised populations (e.g. Nam Et-Phou Louey NBCA; Johnson et al. 2009). Wet evergreen forest is, or was, far more widespread in Viet Nam than in Lao PDR, but it is not universal. The strong evidence from Lao PDR for climatic sensitivity of Owston's Civet suggests that some Viet Namese evergreen forests will hold the species sparsely or not at all (those in a rain-shadow). 

In the Annamite wet evergreen forest of Lao PDR, Owston's Civet has been recorded as high as suitable survey has occurred (1,500 m; Gray et al. 2014b). The few records from Lao PDR's northern highlands, mostly imprecisely located (barring that in Johnson et al. 2009), are likely to come from higher altitudes where the colder temperatures ameliorate the low dry-season rainfall. Thus, in Lao PDR Owston's Civet is likely to occur mostly in hill and montane altitudes, although there are credible reports from as low as 550 m (Gray et al. 2014b), whereas in Viet Nam the species has a wide altitudinal range, right down to the plains and up to 2,600 m (Van Ban district, Lao Kay province, in 2002; S. Swan pers. comm. 2014). Recent camera-trap records at Mu Cang Chai and Muong La, in the northern highlands of Viet Nam, come from altitudes of 1,722-2,444 m a.s.l.; there was very little survey effort below 1,700 m (B.M. Rawson pers, comm. 2014).

Captive animals in both Viet Nam and the U.K. relish earthworms (J. Meek pers. comm. 2014, D.H.A. Willcox pers. comm. 2014) and the species's skull and dentition suggest an invertebrate diet (Thomas 1927). An earthworm-dominated diet would explain the tight linkage with year-round humidity, given that in the parts of Lao PDR with a harsh dry season earthworms are not accessible during that season. This remains purely speculative, especially given that the component of Owston's Civet range south of the northern highlands resembles that of various other species unlikely to depend directly on access to earthworms, e.g. Annamite Striped Rabbit Nesolagus timminsi and Saola Pseudoryx nghetinhensis.

Suitable forests, in Viet Nam at least, include some on limestone and some dominated by bamboo (Roberton 2007). There are indications from Lao PDR of occurrence in degraded and edge habitat such as banana gardens (King 2002), but these remain to be confirmed. The lack of records from deciduous forest surely reflects the genuine pattern of occurrence.

Owston's Civet has not been studied in the field, but camera-trapping indicates that it is nocturnal, largely solitary and presumably largely active at ground level (e.g., Coudrat et al. 2014), although there is at least one record of a wild animal 3 m up a tree (Dang and Le 2010). The species climbs well in captivity (D.H.A. Willcox pers. comm. 2014).

Owston's Civet is known to occur across a wide latitudinal range of both eastern Lao PDR (Sivilay et al. 2011, Coudrat et al. 2014, Gray et al. 2014b) and Viet Nam (Roberton 2007, Dang and Le 2010), and in a small area of southernmost China, possibly only in Hekou, Luchun and Jinping counties of Yunnan province (Wang Ying-xiang 2003) but perhaps also in adjacent Guangxi province (Lau et al. 2010). It has not been found west of the Mekong river (Corbet and Hill 1992) and indeed occurrence in Lao PDR is restricted largely to the easternmost areas that have similarities in climate to Viet Nam. The range may also potentially extend into easternmost Cambodia: two individuals seen in the Phnom Tamao zoo (Phnom Penh) collection of stuffed mounts in the late 1990s were unlikely to have originated outside Cambodia (C.M. Poole pers. comm. to Dang and Le 2010). However, extensive surveys in Cambodia's eastern provinces have not found the species (e.g., Gray et al. 2014a, E.H.B. Pollard pers. comm. 2012). Perhaps the most likely area of Cambodia, eastern Virachey National Park, remains very little camera-trapped. Suitable methodology (camera-trapping and/or spotlighting) has been applied widely enough in the southern half of Lao PDR to be confident the species is entirely or largely restricted to the east in the south and latitudinal centre; capable searches have been less widespread in the northern highlands.

Records come from the range 100-2,600 m, but, particularly west of the Annamites, only a subset of this full range is likely to be occupied in any given area (see 'Habitats and ecology').

Owston's Civet is listed as Endangered on the China Red List and as Vulnerable in the Viet Nam Red Book (MOSTE 2000). It is protected in Yunnan province, but not in Guangxi (GMA Small Carnivore Workshop 2006). In Viet Nam the species is listed in group IIB meaning exploitation is regulated but not prohibited (Decree 32/2006/ND-CP). In Lao PDR, the species is listed in group I (Prohibition category) of the hunting regulations (Prime Minister Decree 81, 2008; Wildlife hunting regulation).

An international breeding programme, coordinated from Viet Nam, has been established with populations in Europe and Viet Nam. However numbers are still too low for long-term viability (J. Meek pers. comm. 2014).

Owston's Civet has been recorded in many protected areas in Viet Nam and several in Lao PDR (Roberton 2007, Sivilay et al. 2011, Coudrat et al. 2014, Gray et al. 2014b) but in none of these is trade-driven snaring yet under effective control. They have, however, somewhat to greatly slowed the expansion of the road system, and thus maintained areas in which it is only marginally economically viable to harvest wildlife meat in bulk; and they have reduced the chance of landscape-level habitat transformation projects such as concession plantations.