African Linsangs (Poiana richardsonii): Ringtails of Central-West Africa

Brown-grey and rusty-yellow act as basic body colors for Central-West African linsangs. The corporeal coloring appears uniform on the under-sides. Dark patterns break up the light expanses of the Central-West African lingsang’s upper-sides. The upper design communicates dark, filled-in circles on the arboreal nocturnalist’s:

• Back;
• Flanks;
• Limbs.

It also completes a series of 9+ dark, unevenly-sized rings between the super-long tail’s base and tip. It respectively conveys a straight line and a wavy jaggedness in the black stripe running from the forehead backward to the base of the tail and in the dark stripe separating the elongated head’s dark, fine, sensory whiskers and light-colored, pointed snout from:

• Big, dark-adapted, rounded eyes;
• Light, pointed ears with dark interiors.

The coloring camouflages a body whose:

• Claws are retractile, sharp, short, and strong;
• Digits number 5 per paw;
• Extremities offer blurred, fleeting, imbalanced impressions of diminutive sinewiness overall and of shorter fore- than rear-limbs;
• Perineal glands operate more for communicating and territorializing than for producing civet oil for medicines and perfumes;
• Soles pander to noiseless forays because of slip-proof treads and pretty impressions because of narrow-striped hind paws.
• Tail remains beautiful, full, and non-prehensilely (“non-graspingly”) contributory to balance by night and warmth by day.

But scientists also consider that caution joins camouflage. They link patterned coats with:

• Agile climbing, jumping, leaping, and running;
• Stinky odors.

Predators may consider themselves warned of exhausting chases and stinky Parthian volleys.

Predators therefore aim typically for pre-adults. Adult females deliver 2 – 3 newborns every 1 – 2 annual litters. Scientists do not have many details about breeding seasons or mating systems. They do know that newborns emerge blind but covered with the fur that grows close, dense, short, and thick on adult coats. Mothers dominate in raising offspring since pre-adults depend upon maternal milk until weaning. A family life is possible since adults may shelter with another adult and 1 – 3 young. Adults locate 6.56+ feet (2+ meters) above the ground nests made of green, nitrogen-rich foliage. They move frequently throughout their home and territorial ranges, with squirrels hot on their tracks to recycle abandoned, clean, comfortable, secure nests.

The nomadism in building, moving, and re-building arises from concerns over:

• Generational sustainability;
• Genetic diversity;
• Group security;
• Resource availability.

Scientists assume the two Africa-based linsang species to be omnivores (“everything-eaters”) and the two Asia-based species to be carnivores (“meat-eaters”). Central-West African linsangs indeed consume:

• Insects;
• Plant material (fruits, grains, leaves, nuts, seeds);
• Small vertebrates;
• Young birds.

They die if they do otherwise since Central-West Africa’s rainforests and woodlands harbor heat and moisture extremes. The Central-West African linsang’s bio-geographical distribution also falls within that of:

• Assiduous hunters of flesh and fur;
• Busy agriculturalists, loggers, and miners;
• Predatory raptors and reptiles;
• Thickly-growing shrubs and trees in the Apocynaceae (dogbane), Caesalpiniaceae (bean), Euphorbiaceae (spurge), and Rubiaceae (bedstraw, coffee, madder) families.

All of the Central-West African linsang’s wildlife associations appear to cluster at:

• Altitudes of 984.25 – 3,116.79 feet (300 – 950 meters) above sea level;
• Evapo-transpirations, precipitations, and temperatures of 55.22 inches (1,402.47 millimeters), 5.89 inches (149.74 millimeters), and 75.74°F (24.3°C).

They therefore belong to super-vegetated elevations in:

• Cameroon;
• Central African Republic;
• Democratic Republic of Congo;
• Equatorial Guinea;
• Gabon;
• Republic of the Congo.

They breech West Africa’s coastal waters with disjunct populations on Bioko Island. But both population centers constitute intact, tropical lowland and montane sylvan environments in which separated Central-West African linsangs evidence similar behaviors of:

• “Clean-kill” stalking;
• Prioritizing super-senses over vocalizations;
• Showcasing aesthetic, agile, waltz-like trots by moving digitigrade (“on the digits”), not plantigrade (“on the soles”).

Adults also articulate similarities in:

• Dentition: Upper and lower jaws’ respective 6 incisors, 2 canines, 8 premolars, and 2 molars and 6 incisors, 1 canines, 8 premolars, and 4 molars;
• Head-and-body lengths: 12.99 – 14.96 inches (33 – 38 centimeters);
• Sole-to-shoulder heights: 5.91 – 7.09 inches (15 – 18 centimeters);
• Tail lengths: 13.78 – 15.75 inches (35 – 40 centimeters);
• Weights: 17.64 – 24.69 ounces (500 – 700 grams).

Some scientists therefore concur with:

• Thomas Richard Heywood Thomson’s (1813 – 1876) identification in 1841 of the nominate species Poiana richardsonii richardsonii;
• Michael Rogers Oldfield Thomas’s (February 21, 1858 – June 16, 1929) and Robert Charles Wroughton’s (August 15, 1849 – August 15, 1921) identification in 1907 of the subspecies P.r. ochracea.

Others still debate Central-West African taxonomic niches.

Central-West African linsangs get face- and name-recognition from locals and specialists. Experts identify them conversationally as:

• African linsang;
• Central African linsang;
• Central African oyan;
• Richardson’s linsang.

Villagers know them as:  

• Linsang africano;
• Linsang africain;
• Oyan;
• Poiane.

Environmentalists opine that Richardson's linsang deserves better than:

• Death from over-hunting;
• Recycling into celebratory bush-meat, ceremonial dress, medicine bags, wallets, and wristbands;
• Stress from agro-industrial- and mining-induced habitat fragmentation and globally-warmed climate change.

All who glimpse or study the elusive, graceful, mysterious, nimble, streamlined, taciturn viverrid (“ferret-like”) mammal indeed realize the specialness of Richardson's linsang in:

• Controlling vegetation;
• Dispersing seeds;
• Eating arthropod pests;
• Fine-tuning non-vocal skills through image-, scent-, sound-, and touch-related information-sharing.

Fortunately, protected areas authorities recognize the importance too.

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

taxidermied African Linsang (Poiana richardsonii) at the Natural History Museum in London: Emőke Dénes, CC BY SA 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:African_linsang_1.jpg

J.A. Allen, "Carnivora Collected," Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History, Vol. XLVII (1922), Plate XVII, Figure 2: Public Domain, via Internet Archive @ https://archive.org/details/bulletinamerican47ameruoft/page/n343/mode/1up?view=theater

J.A. Allen, "Carnivora Collected," Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History, Vol. XLVII (1922), Figure 35, p. 146: Public Domain, via Internet Archive @ https://archive.org/details/bulletinamerican47ameruoft/page/146/mode/1up?view=theater

Distribution data from IUCN Red List: Chermundy / IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, species assessors and the authors of the spatial data, CC BY SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:African_Linsang_area.png

J.A. Allen, "Carnivora Collected," Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History, Vol. XLVII (1922), Figure 34, p. 145: Public Domain, via Internet Archive @ https://archive.org/details/bulletinamerican47ameruoft/page/145/mode/1up?view=theater

lithograph portrait: Public Domain, via U.S. National Library of Medicine Digital Collections, History of Medicine (IHM) Collection @ https://collections.nlm.nih.gov/catalog/nlm:nlmuid-101427227-img?qvq=q:B022269;lc:NLMNLM~1~1&mi;=0&trs;=1; Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sir_John_Richardson_(1787-1865).png

oil on canvas by John Ernest Breun (1862-1921): Kristofer M. Helgen, Roberto Portela Miguez, James Kohen, Lauren Helgen/ZooKeys, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Portrait_of_Michael_Rogers_Oldfield_Thomas_-_ZooKeys-255-103-g003-bottom_right.jpeg; via Pensoft Publishers / ZooKeys @ https://zookeys.pensoft.net/showimg.php?filename=oo_25946.jpg

J.A. Allen, "Carnivora Collected," Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History, Vol. XLVII (1922), Plate XX, Figure 1: Public Domain, via Internet Archive @ https://archive.org/details/bulletinamerican47ameruoft/page/n349/mode/1up?view=theater

J.A. Allen, "Carnivora Collected," Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History, Vol. XLVII (1922), Plate XVIII: Public Domain, via Internet Archive @ https://archive.org/details/bulletinamerican47ameruoft/page/n345/mode/1up?view=theater

Gulf of Guinea: Amcaja, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Limbe_view_with_Bioko.jpg

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