Aquatic Fish-Eating Genets (Genetta piscivora): Non-Ringtails in the Democratic Republic of Congo

Genets are considered aquatic when they depend upon the rivers and streams near which they establish dens. They are deemed non-aquatic when they do not structure their lives around the water sources nevertheless present in their forested, grassy, vegetated or wooded environments. Either way, they end up categorized as carnivores (“meat-eaters”) despite:

• Aquatic genets joining the world's piscivores (“fish-eaters”) and ranivores (“frog-eaters”);

• Non-aquatic genets warranting omnivorousness (“everything-eating”) for consuming what opportune occasions offer.

They also get classified as day-sleeping, night-tripping tree-dwellers despite:

• All genets becoming daytime activists during the most humid, wettest rainy season months;

• Aquatic genets claiming ground-based life cycles and natural histories;

• Non-aquatic genets denning from rocky crevices and tree burrows or hollows.

Scientists deem close relatives:

• All-dark aquatic genets of Democratic Republic of the Congo;

• Spotted-and-striped Johnston's genets (Genetta johnstoni) of Ghana, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Liberia, and Sierra Leone.

They identify genets sympatric (“same-ranging”) with aquatics. Congo-Brazzaville and DR Congo include:

• Giants (G. victoriae) of Rwanda and Uganda;

• Rusty-spotted panthers (G. maculata) of Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burundi, Cameroon, Centrafrique, Chad, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gabon, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Rwanda, Somalia, Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, and Zambia;

• Schouteden's (G. schoutedeni) of Angola, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Mozambique, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, and Uganda;

• Servalines (G. servalina) of Cameroon, Centrafrique, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda.

But aquatics cannot be mistaken for any other genet. Bio-geographically, they demand specific niches:

• At altitudes of 1,509.19 – 4,921.26 feet (460 – 1,500 meters) above sea level;

• From the Congo River's northeast banks eastward to the Rift Valley;

• In the World Heritage Site-designated Okapi Wildlife Reserve in the Ituri River Rainforest;

• Within rainforests dominated by Gilbertiodendron deweverei, tall hardwoods within the Caesalpinioideae subfamily -- named in honor of Arezzo-born Italian botanist Andreas Caesalpinus (June 6, 1519 – February 23, 1603) -- of the Fabaceae (bean, legume, and pea) family.

Physically, they exhibit a deep truth regarding genets:

• The drier the environment, the lighter the colors;

• The moister the habitat, the darker the colors.

Chestnut, dull red, and rusty brown beautify the aquatic genets':

• Heads;

• Long, plush pelts;

• Upper limbs.

White brightens:

• Eye-rings;

• Foreheads;

• Muzzles;

• Necks;

• Throats;

• Whiskers.

Black darkens:

• Big, rounded eyes;

• Elongated, thick tails;

• Hairless soles;

• Noses;

• Paws;

• Upper-facial striping.

The colors imitate sunlight on the bark of nitrogen-fixing trees and the poor soils in dense rainforests whose ambient conditions monthly configure:

• 5.70 inches (144.85 millimeters) in precipitation;

• 59.90 inches (1,521.36 millimeters) in evapo-transpiration;

• 74.53°F (23.63°C) in temperature.

They hide ungenetlike:

• Small ears;

• Small olfactory bulbs;

• Underdeveloped sense of smell;

• Weak teeth – 12 incisors, 4 canines, 16 premolars, and 8 molars – in which the premolars are ungenetlike larger than the molars.

Smithsonian National Natural History Museum mammalogist Dr. Kristofer Helgen calls ghost specimens animals known scientifically through museum-held skins and skulls. The aquatic genet's bio-geography and physique indeed can be determined through local hunters:

• Revealing Bambuti pygmy elders' monopoly over flesh- and fur-processing;

• Sharing specimens killed in riverside snares.

Little emerges from studying the 30 known museum-held species. But scientists know that physically and sexually mature aquatic genets attain:

• Head-and-body lengths of 17.32 – 19.69 inches (44 – 50 centimeters);

• Tail lengths of 13.39 – 16.54 inches (34 – 42 centimeters);

• Weights of 3.15 – 3.31 ounces (1.43 – 1.5 kilograms).

They suggest that females realize the upper – and males the lower – of the above-mentioned ranges.

Scientists conjecture:

• Bi-annual deliveries of 2+ grey-furred offspring born after 70+-day gestations during rainy-season months;

• Functional ears and eyes within 2 weeks;

• Liquid diets for 2 months, solid foods by 3, and weaned regimes at 4;

• Nocturnal forages at 6 months;

• Physical maturity at 1 year;

• Sexual maturity at 2 – 4 years;

• Survival expectancies of 7+ years.

They expect:

• Conflict avoidance – despite 20 curved, retractable claws – with predatory mammals, raptors, and reptiles;

• Non-overlapping territories for same-gender neighbors but overlaps with mixed;

• Permanent dens in burrows, crevices, and overgrowth;

• Regular latrines.

They suspect:

• Escape routes;

• Squirms through openings at least the size of genet heads.

Aquatic genet taxonomy dates back almost 100 years, to 1919. It draws upon the expertise of Springfield, Massachusetts-born zoologist Joel Asaph Allen (July 9, 1838 – August 29, 1921), as:

• Harvard University student of natural historian Louis Agassiz (May 28, 1807 – December 14, 1873);

• Northern Pacific Railroad expedition naturalist, 1873;

• Theorist of climate-adapted body shapes, 1877.

It has to be supplemented by scientific research since aquatic genets rank among the world's enigmatic, rare carnivores. Expanding scientific knowledge of aquatic genets needs prioritization because of the twenty-first century's stresses of:

• Globally-warmed climate change;

• Habitat-fragmenting logging and mining;

• Population-decimating over-hunting.

Population sustainability and species survival indeed require the forewarned/forearmed effectiveness of:

• Governmental protection;

• Scientific research;

• Wildlife-lover support.

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

Congo peafowl (Afropavo congensis); Antwerp Zoo, northeastern Belgium: frank wouters, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Afropavo_congensis_-Antwerp_Zoo_-pair-8a.jpg

Genetta victoriae
Oldfield Thomas, "On the More Notable Mammals Obtained by Sir Harry Johnston in the Uganda Protectorate."
Proceedings of General Meetings for Scientific Business of Zoological Society of London, vol. II (May 21, 1901), Pl. V, opposite page 85: Biodiversity Heritage Library (BioDivLibrary), Public Domain, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/biodivlibrary/50268403162/

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:Aquatic_Genet_area.png

Genetta piscivora skull
J.A. Allen, "Carnivora Collected by the American Museum Congo Expedition"
Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History, vol. XLVII, Art. III (April 11, 1924), Figure 21, page 136: via Internet Archive @ https://archive.org/details/bulletinamerican47ameruoft/page/136/mode/1up

Genetta piscivora fore feet
Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History, vol. XLVII, Art. III (April 11, 1924), Figure 26, page 139: via Internet Archive @ https://archive.org/details/bulletinamerican47ameruoft/page/139/mode/1up

Joel Asaph Allen
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Mbuti pygmies pose with explorer Osa Helen Leighty Johnson
1930 photo by Martin Johnson (October 9, 1884 – January 13, 1937): Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Bambuti.jpg

Epulu River flowing through Okapi Fauna Reserve, Democratic Republic of the Congo: J. Doremus/US Agency for International Development (USAID), Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Epulu_Okapi_Reserve.jpg

Orientale Province, northeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo: fictures, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Boyoma.jpg; fictures, CC BY 2.0, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/53838941@N00/4986349/

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