African Civets occupy a wide variety of habitats including secondary forest, woodland, and bush habitats, as well as aquatic environments. They are generally absent from arid regions, with the exception of riverine systems therein. They are apparently uncommon in mature interior forest habitats, but will infiltrate deep forest via logging roads, and in the forests of West and Central Africa, they thrive in degraded and deforested areas, and are regularly encountered near villages (Ray 2013). They are also found on cultivated land, for instance in Gabon (Bahaa-el-din et al. 2013) and Ethiopia (Mateos et al. 2015). African Civets are omnivorous and opportunistic foragers (Ray and Sunquist 2001, Bekele et al. 2008b, Amiard 2014), and their diet may include cereals (maize, wheat, barley) and domestic fruits (e.g., bananas, figs, olives; Bekele et al. 2008b). They are terrestrial, nocturnal and solitary, with exception of the breeding season when two or more individuals can be seen together. In Ethiopia, in the Bale Mountains National Park, one radio-tracked sub-adult male had a home range of 11.1 km² (Admasu et al. 2004), while in Wondo Genet, one adult male (0.74 km²) and one sub-adult female (0.82 km²) ranged over much smaller areas (Ayalew et al. 2013). The last two individuals moved at an average speed of 326 m/h and travelled between 1.33 and 4.24 km each night.

African Civet is widely distributed in Africa from Senegal and Mauritania to southern Sudan, Ethiopia, Djibouti, and southern Somalia southwards in all countries to north-eastern Namibia, north and east Botswana, and north-eastern South Africa (Ray 2013). It is present on Zanzibar Island (Pakenham 1984, Stuart and Stuart 1988) and Sao Tome I. (Dutton 1994). The species is recorded from almost sea level to altitudes of 5,000 m a.s.l. on Mt Kilimanjaro (Moreau 1944).

They are present in numerous protected areas across their range. The population of Botswana is listed on CITES Appendix III. Detailed recommendations to ensure the sustainable use African Civets for musk production can be found in Abebe (2003).