Banded Civet has been found at elevations up to 1,660 m (WWF-Malaysia pers. comm. 2014). Most records traced by Jennings et al. (2013) were from below 900 m, although this could simply reflect low survey effort at higher elevations within most of its range. Where effort has been made in high-elevation areas it has been found to occur commonly well over 900 m. For example, in Crocker Range National Park, Sabah, Malaysia, it was detected at 75% of camera-trap stations and was the second-most frequently recorded civet; camera-traps in this survey were set between 383 and 1,452 m a.s.l. with 66% of them above 900 m a.s.l. (A.J. Hearn, J. Ross and D.W. Macdonald pers. comm. 2015). At high elevations in the Kelabit Highlands, Sarawak and the Ulu Baram, Sarawak, Banded Civet was the most frequently recorded civet; at high elevations in the Ulu Padas, Sabah, it was the most frequently recorded carnivore (J. Brodie et al. pers. comm. 2014). Banded Civet has been recorded in primary forest (e.g., Wells et al. 2005, Chutipong et al. 2014), logged forest (e.g., Brodie and Giordano 2011, Wilting et al. 2010, Mathai et al. 2010, Hedges et al. 2013) and infrequently from oil palm plantations (A.J. Hearn and J. Ross pers. comm. 2014; Yue et al. in prep.) and acacia plantation landscapes (Belden et al. 2007), but abundance is likely to be lower in modified habitat (Brodie et al. 2014a,b). In Sabah it was shown that its proportion of area occupied was greatly affected by the past logging histories and the species was distributed much more widely and was recorded more often in less disturbed, well managed forest reserves than in forests where conventional logging had caused greater disturbance (Sollmann et al. in prep).

It is nocturnal (Lekagul and McNeely 1977, Ross et al. in prep. b). Davis (1962) found in Borneo that over 90% of its diet was insects, and no analysed stomach contents contained fruit or leaves.

Banded Civet occurs in the Sundaic subregion: in Peninsular Myanmar (Pocock 1939), Peninsular Thailand (Kitamura et al. 2010, Chutipong et al. 2014), Malaysia (Peninsular: e.g., Kawanishi and Sunquist 2004, Hedges et al. 2013; Malaysian Borneo: e.g., Mathai et al. 2010, Matsubayashi et al. 2011), Indonesia (Mentawai Islands [Sipora Island, South Pagai Island], Kalimantan, Sumatra; e.g., Schreiber et al. 1989, Holden 2006, Samejima and Semiadi 2012) and Brunei (Bennett 2014). The northernmost Thai record is from 12°53′N (Chutipong et al. 2014) and the northernmost in Myanamr is from 10°09′N (Than Zaw et al. 2008). Several sources list Banded Civet for Vietnam, but no credible evidence of wild occurrence has been traced and it is unlikely to occur there naturally.

There are no recent records in Myanmar (Than Zaw et al. 2008). It has been camera-trapped at several locations in peninsular Thailand (Chutipong et al. 2014) and Malaysia (Hedges et al. 2013, S. Mohamad pers. comm. 2014). On Borneo, it is one of the most frequently detected small carnivores in most spot-lighting and camera trap surveys in Sabah, where it has been recorded across the state (Payne et al. 1998, Brodie and Giordano 2011, Ross et al. in prep. a). It is also one of the more frequently detected species in Sarawak (e.g. Mathai 2010). In Kalimantan it has not been recorded in the peat-swamp forests of Sabangau National Park (Cheyne et al. 2010), but it has been detected in peat swamp forest in Berbak National Park, Sumatra (ZSL Indonesia programme pers. comm. 2014). In Sumatra, Holden (2006) detected the species infrequently in lowland primary forest in Kerinci Seblat National Park; however in Bukit Barisan Selatan National Park it is found commonly at higher elevations (McCarthy and Fuller 2014, H. Wibisono pers. comm. 2014).

It has been found from sea-level up to 1,660 m a.s.l. (WWF-Malaysia pers. comm. 2014).

Banded Civet is listed on CITES Appendix II; additionally, it is protected by national law in Malaysia and Thailand. The Mentawai subspecies were listed as Threatened in the IUCN Action Plan for the Conservation of Mustelids and Viverrids (Schreiber et al. 1989). The species has been recorded in many protected areas across its range (Chutipong et al. 2014, Ross et al. in prep. a, WWF-Malaysia pers. comm. 2014).