The African civet, Civettictis civetta , is the largest member of the Viverridae family and one of the most widely distributed mesocarnivores in Africa. Despite its wide geographic distribution, little is known about its ecology, behaviour, and conservation biology, such as abundance and density. Mesocarnivores can play important roles in ecosystem functioning and these roles may become more important, especially in areas where large carnivores are actively removed (e.g. mesocarnivore release hypothesis). In this study, we use data from a camera-trapping survey originally designed to monitor leopards, Panthera pardus , to report on the density of African civets across different land-use types – two conservation areas (Lapalala, Welgevonden) and one mosaic ‘Farming area’ consisting of hunting, ecotourism, and livestock farms – in the moist mountain bushveld region of the Waterberg Biosphere Reserve, South Africa. We fitted spatially explicit capture–recapture (secr) models, with parameter sharing, across the different sites to improve estimates. We found that the study site (and hence land use type) had a significant effect on African civet density, detection probability, and the movement parameter. Density estimates were the highest for Lapalala (8.63 ± 2.30 individuals/100 km ² ), followed by the Farming area (4.88 ± 1.05 individuals/100 km ² ) while the lowest density was detected on Welgevonden (4.43 ± 1.13 individuals/100 km ² ). Our results suggest that there are healthy African civet populations within the Waterberg Biosphere Reserve, but that land use might play an important role in African civet population demographics. We hypothesize that differences in African civet density might be a result of factors such as top–down regulation from large carnivores, recreational hunting, poisoning, resource provisioning, and human activity.