Viverra

Viverra is a genus of civets, family Viverridae, first formally described by Carl Linnaeus in 1758 with the large Indian civet designated as type species and later subordinated to the family Viverridae by John Edward Gray in 1821; the genus has a fossil record extending from the Miocene to the present. Four living species are recognized: the large Indian civet, the Malayan civet, the large-spotted civet and the Malabar large-spotted civet, distributed across Southeast Asia and the Indian subcontinent. Members are distinguished from other genera in the subfamily Viverrinae by lobes of skin on the third and fourth digits of the fore feet, protecting the retractile claws, and by a long, narrow skull with nearly parallel sides and only a slight waist constriction.