The genet is a fascinating and enigmatic creature, possessing remarkable agility and a secretive, nocturnal lifestyle that has earned them a reputation as one of nature's most elusive predators.
What are genets?
Are ganets a member of the cat family? They certainly look like it, but in actual fact these small, carnivorous mammals belong to the Viverridae family- a group which also contain civets.
What do genets look like?
Genets resemble the love child of a cat crossed with a smidgen of mongoose and a touch of marten, with a soupçon of lemur thrown in for good measure.
About the size of a short-legged tabby, genets are essentially grey-brown with a distinctive blend of black stripes and spots: their flanks and legs are spotted while a black stripe runs from their shoulders along their spines to the base of their long, bushy, ringed tail.
They have a relatively small head and a pointed muzzle with small, erect ears. The face is well marked with the strong black- and-white designs around the muzzle that are so typical of many nocturnal predators.
Most species of genet share the retractable claws and the feline look of cats, and indeed common genets have been observed adopting the same defensive posture when they feel threatened, arching their backs with their dorsal and tail hairs erect while hissing through bared teeth.
Where do genets live?
The current range of the common genet includes parts of Southern Africa (from Namibia to Mozambique in the east), a band of sub-Saharan Africa (from Senegal east to the Horn of Africa), the Arabian Peninsula and North Africa.
Common genets are also found throughout the Iberian Peninsula, north into southern and western France. They favour Mediterranean oak and pine woodlands, scrubland and rocky areas, typically with a source of water nearby. Genets spotted elsewhere in Europe are believed to have escaped from captivity.
How did genets come to Europe?
There are two schools of thought as to how common genets spread into Europe. Some think that the animals in the Iberian Peninsula are a remnant population isolated after the Gibraltar land bridge was breached by the Mediterranean Sea more than three million years ago. A size variation, with smaller specimens in the north of the range, suggests that the European distribution of the genet has been natural.
The second theory is that they were brought as pets to Iberia by the Moors. They are
affectionate and easily house-trained, and are thought to have been kept as rat-catchers until the modern domestic cat superseded them in the Middle Ages.
What is known for sure is that the populations on the Balearic Islands were most certainly introduced by humans. The genets found on Ibiza, for example, are smaller than their counterparts in mainland Spain and seem to resemble a form of the feline genet, a closely related species in Africa.
What do genets eat?
Keen eyesight and a lithe build make genets proficient hunters. Genets are generally unobtrusive animals, hence their low profile in Spain and elsewhere, feeding mostly on small mammals and occasionally small birds, reptiles, amphibians and fish, as well as invertebrates.
How do genets hunt?
They are excellent users of stealth, stalking their prey in a series of speedy dashes punctuated by short pauses.
What do genets sound like?
Genets are often described as quiet animals, but they do vocalise occasionally and their kits can purr. Females sometimes utter a hiccupping sound to their young and, in a nod to their feline roots, copulating adults meow and the female will utter a growl when she ushers the male away.
How often do genets reproduce?
In Europe common genets can breed all year but tend to produce two to four young between April and September.
The kits are born in a vegetation-lined nest in a tree or burrow. They are blind at birth but their eyes are open by the time they start to venture from the nest eight days later. They are weaned after six months, becoming independent after a year and sexually mature after two.
Genets are proficient climbers too, but spend a lot of their time on the ground. They are also rather solitary, with one study finding that males command territories of up to 113ha and females up to 72ha. Of the two sexes, the female appears to be the more territorial.
Are genets related to cats?
There is some evidence that genets are related to cats - however its very distant. The genet and civet family, Viverridae, appears to represent an ancient family of feliform lineage that branched off.
What other animals are in the Viverridae family?
Throughout the world there are generally considered to be 34 species in the Viverridae family, though further taxonomic research may alter this number. A number of them are sadly of conservation concern, largely due to the threat of habitat destruction.
Currently the clan includes six species of large terrestrial civets, 17 species of the slender and semi- arboreal genets and oyans, about four species of banded palm civets and the strange aquatic otter civets.
Finally there are at least seven very arboreal species that include another group of palm civets and the curious black and hairy binturong from Asia, which is also known as the bearcat.
The oddest member of the tribe is the fosa from Madagascar. It is a very cat-like animal that is highly arboreal and preys on lemurs as its food of choice. One of the unusual things about the fosa is that it is the only known mammal where young females temporarily develop masculine characteristics before returning to be fully feminine in adulthood.
The Viverridae family also once included mongooses, with which they share several traits. However, recent molecular studies have concluded that the mongoose is more closely related to hyenas.
