 The African palm civet ("Nandinia binotata") is genetically distinct and belongs in its own monotypic family, Nandiniidae.Civets are also called "toddycats" in English, "Luwak" in Indonesian, "musang" in Malaysian, and "urulǣvā" () in Sinhalese.There can be confusion among speakers of Malaysian because the indigenous word "musang" has been mistakenly applied to foxes by printed media instead of "rubah", which is the correct but lesser-known term.