Blotched Large-Spotted Cape Genets (Genetta tigrina): Ringtails in Southernmost South Africa

South Africa appeals to blotched large-spotted Cape genets. Africa’s southernmost country attracts the opportunistic carnivore to diverse niches within such humid, moist, vegetated habitats as:

• Coastal deciduous, rain, and scrub subtropical forests;
• Grasslands;
• Savannah woodlands.

Blotched large-spotted Cape genets avoid:

• Aridity;
• Marshiness.

Fynbos (“fine bush,” slender scrub) from Clanwilliam, Western Cape Province to Port Elizabeth, Eastern Cape Province nevertheless belongs on the list of suitable habitats because of:

• Humid, sheltered pockets of black ironwood (Olea capensis), Clanwilliam (Widdringtonia cedarbergensis) and mountain (W. nodiflora) cypress, and milkwood silver (Leucodendron argenteum) trees;
• Vegetative cover from cone-, feather-, rice-, and sugar-bushes and from grasses, heaths, pincushions, reeds, and succulents;
• Winter rain meeting minimal yearly requirements of 17.72+ inches (450+ millimeters).

Two genet species appear to be sympatric (“same-ranging”) with blotched large-spotted Capes. The genets in question are among the three holders of classifications that Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle scientist Philippe Gaubert proposes elevating from subspecies to species status. Central African large-spotted letaba genets (currently Genetta maculata letabae, proposed G. letabae) claim within their bio-geographical distributions and ranges:

• Lesotho;
• Mozambique;
• Namibia;
• South Africa;
• Swaziland.

Feline small-spotted South African genets (presently G. genetta felina, proposed G. felina) include as homelands:

• Angola;
• Namibia;
• Orange Free State;
• South Africa;
• Zambia.

Blotched large-spotted Cape genets join:

• Feline genets in grasslands;
• Feline and letabae genets in woodland savannahs.

They resist:

• Feline genets’ desert-proximitous, dry vlei ("lakelet"), and thicket habitats;
• Letabae genets’ forest-savannah mosaics.

All of the 13 – 16 known non-aquatic genet species answer to a basic look of:

• Alert ears;

• Big eyes;

• Dark-spotted bodies;

• Dark-and-light tails;

• Short legs;

• Tapered muzzles.

Variations arise regarding:

• Flank, head, limb, spot, and tail-tip colors;

• Densities and distributions of spots;

• Mid-dorsal and mid-tail lines;

• Mid-dorsal crests;

• Numbers and widths of tail bands, rings or stripes.

But both blotched large-spotted Cape and feline small-spotted South African genets display:

• Large dark chin-lines;

• Servaline genet-like (G. servalina) mid-dorsal crests;

• Tail hairs 1.58 – 1.77 inches (40 – 45 millimeters) long.

Both blotched large-spotted Cape and Central African large-spotted letaba genets have:

• Dark-backed upper legs;

• Dark-tipped tails. 

Tails act as inconsistent identifiers for the three sympatric genet species. For example, all three can have the same number of tail rings since the range is:

• 6 – 8 for Cape genets;

• 6 – 9 for letaba genets;

• 8 – 9 for feline genets.

Both Cape and letaba genets claim pale stripes 50 – 75% wider than dark. All three species display mid-tail lines that run longitudinally along the top from base to tip. But the line is barely visible on Cape genets. This feature of the Cape genet's tail joins with two other hallmarks:

• All-dark inner upper limbs;

• All-dark lower rear-limbs.

These three identifiers nevertheless may not be noticeable on the super-fast, super-reclusive Cape genet. 

Fortunately, no genet communicates blotchiness, large-spottedness, and soft-furredness the way that blotched large-spotted Cape genets do. Cape genet bodies also convey:

• Black to rusty-red corporeal spotting and mid-dorsal striping;

• Dark hairiness on all soles;

• Grey to off-white background;

• Grey to off-white extremities with all-dark lower rear-limbs and upper inner-sides and dark-backed lower fore-limbs and upper outer-sides.

Their heads exhibit:

• Brown patching around super-sensory whiskers;

• Clear eyeshine;

• Dark line running between large, light-colored ears;

• Dark eyeliner;

• Dark eyebrows running vertically from the inner and outer sides of both eyes;

• White banding around moist noses and under dark-adapted eyes.

Their tails mix paler or oranger light bands, rings or stripes with dark. 

During 70+-day gestations, mothers build dens:

• Around boulders;

• In burrows;

• Within hollows.

They deliver during the wet-season months from September to March. Grey-furred, 2.15 – 2.89-ounce (61 – 82-gram) twins, triplets or quadruplets experience:

• Deaf-blindness for 1 – 2-1/2 weeks;

• Nursing for 4-1/2 weeks;

• Predation at 28 weeks;

• Vocalizations: contented purring, “I-am-lost” crying, scary hissing, stressed churring/yapping;

• Weaning at 32 – 44 weeks.

Physical and sexual maturity involves:

• Dentition: 12 incisors, 4 canines, 16 premolars, and 8 molars;

• Head-and-body lengths: 19.29 – 23.62 inches (49 – 60 centimeters);

• Tail lengths: 16.54 – 21.26 inches (42 – 54 centimeters);

• Weights: 1.85 – 7.06 pounds (0.84 – 3.2 kilograms).

Challenges abound since taxonomic descriptions in 1776 by Johann Christian Daniel von Schreber (January 17, 1739 – December 10, 1810), as:

• Weißensee-born German naturalist;

• University of Erlangen pharmacologist, 1769-;

• Die Säugethiere in Abbildungen nach der Natur mit Beschreibungen [“Descriptions of Mammals with Illustrations Drawn from Nature”] publisher, 1774-.

Scientists still admire Cape genets for:

• Avoiding predatory mammals, raptors, and reptiles;

• Consuming small arachnids, birds, insects, mammals, and reptiles;

• Dispersing seeds;

• Effecting 9.84+-foot (3+-meter) jumps;

• Mowing grasses (ingested to vomit hair-balls and toxins);

• Self-defending through back-arching, fur-raising, saliva-balling, and stink-bombing despite 40 teeth and 20 claws.

But legislation and research must problem-solve:

• Globally-warmed climate change;

• Over-agro-industrializing;

• Over-hunting.

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

large-spotted genet (Genetta tigrina), known popularly in South Africa as Misselyat-kat, or Musk Cat
F.W. Fitzsimons, The Natural History of South Africa: Mammals (1919), Vol. II, opposite page 6: Not in copyright, via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/9397672

Newlands Forest, eastern slopes of Table Mountain, Southern Suburbs of Cape Town, southwestern South Africa: Abu Shawka, Public Domain (CC0 1.0), via Wikimedia Commons @ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Giant_Ironwood_Tree_-_Olea_capensis_macrocarpa_-_Newlands_Forest_-_Cape_Town_1.jpg

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://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cape_Genet_area.png

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Large Spotted Genet (Genetta tigrina) at Cincinnati Zoo: Trisha Shears (Ltshears), CC BY SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Large_SpottedGenet_CincinnatiZoo.jpg

Johann Christian Daniel von Schreber, Genetta tigrina describer
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Mountain fynbos on the Cape Peninsula: S Molteno, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Peninsula_Sandstone_Fynbos_-_Cape_Town_8.JPG

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granite formations overlooking Langebaan Lagoon: Winfried Bruenken (Amrum), CC BY SA 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:P9200035.JPG

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