Diets of the African Civet Civettictis civetta (Schreber, 1778) in selected coffee forest habitat,south‐western Ethiopia

Feeding ecology of the African civet, Civettictis civetta (Schreber, 1778), was studied in selected coffee forest habitat for two seasons between December 2012 and October 2013. The study was conducted in Limu Seka district, south‐west Ethiopia. Faecal analysis was employed to assess the diet spectrum, seasonal abundance and relative importance of food items. Over 55 different food items were identified from the analysis of 387 scat samples collected during the dry and wet seasons. In the coffee forest habitat, African civets showed omnivorous feeding habit with plant‐to‐animal diet biomass ratio of 1 : 1.36. A slight diet specialization was observed during the wet season (BA = 0.46) favouring animal prey. However, during the dry season, they showed generalist feeding habit (BA = 0.87) with more plant biomass in their diet. With over 64% occurrence and 14.4% biomass, coffee berries significantly contributed to the civets dry season plant diets. The excreted coffee beans, after civets ingested ripe coffee berries, are the tastiest product used by farmers for consumption and market. Seasonal collection of civet coffee from coffee forest floor economically supports the farmers while increasing the importance of civets in the habitat and hence contributing for its conservation.