Feline Small-Spotted Genets (Genetta felina): Ringtails of Angola, Namibia, South Africa, and Zambia

Common names also are called trivial and vernacular designations. They come from:

• The preferences of non-specialists and scientists;
• The weight of tradition.

For example, feline genets get called South African small-spotted genets. They also have a binomial (“two-name”), Latin, scientific, or taxonomic classification. The categorization is the result of:

• An initial official identification;
• Ensuing revisions updated by scientific research and technological breakthroughs.

The first presentation occurs in 1811 by Carl Peter Thunberg (November 11, 1743 – August 8, 1828), as:

• Jönköping-born Swedish naturalist;
• Medical and natural history graduate under Småland-born Swedish botanist, physician, proto-ecologist, proto-taxonomist, and zoologist Carl Linnaeus (May 23, 1707 – January 10, 1778) at Uppsala University, 1767;
• Specimen collector in South Africa, 1772 – 1775 and 1778.

The holotype acts as the “common, whole” specimen upon which the admission requirements and defining characteristics of a taxonomic category are based. The Thunberg specimen functions as the holotype for feline South African small-spotted genets. But insightful information also may be gathered from the formal, synonymous identification of the macrura (long-tailed) genet specimen in 1892 by Wymbritseradiel-born Dutch zoologist Fredericus Anna Jentink (August 20, 1844 – November 4, 1913), as:

• Leiden Rijksmuseum van Naturlijke Historie (National Natural History Museum) curator, 1875-, and director, 1884-;
• Notes from the Leyden Museum journal editor, 1884-;
• Catalogue ostéologique des mammifères (Catalogue of the Structure and Function of Mammal Bones) and Catalogue systématique des mammifères (Systematic Catalogue of Mammals) publisher, 1887 and 1892.

Scientific consensus thus far allows feline South African small-spotted genets to constitute one of the African – Eurasian common small-spotted genet’s sub-Saharan African subspecies. But at the same time the scientific community of the twenty-first century can be characterized as open and receptive to re-examining and re-structuring older information in the light of cutting-edge technology and fresher data. One such cycle of research and revision deals with promoting feline South African small-spotted genets to their own separate species. The impetus for such a change in nomenclature and taxonomy derives from the efforts of Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle scientist Philippe Gaubert as dissertator, publisher, researcher, and specialist on such contemporary viverrids as Africa’s and Eurasia’s genets and Africa’s oyans.

Feline genets call home:

• Angola;
• Namibia;
• South Africa;
• Zambia.

Five species somewhat do likewise. They include:

• African – Eurasian common small-spotted: Algeria, Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Chad, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Somalia, South Africa, Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Tunisia, Uganda, Yemen, Zambia, Zimbabwe;
• Angolan miombo (Genetta angolensis): Angola, Botswana, Congo-Kinshasa, Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe;
• Blotched large-spotted Cape (G. tigrina) of South Africa;
• Letabae (G. letabae): Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland;
• Rusty-spotted panther (G. maculata): Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burundi, Cameroon, Centrafrique, Chad, Congo-Brazzaville, Congo-Kinshasa, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gabon, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Rwanda, Somalia, Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Zambia.

All six semi-sympatric (“same-ranging”) genet species commit to:

• Individual dens in rocky crevices or tree burrows and hollows on overlapping territories for mixed-gender neighbors and separated for same-gender;
• Nocturnal forages for insects, plants, and small birds, mammals, raptors, and reptiles;
• Rainy-season mating;
• Yearly litters of 1+ grey-furred newborns.

But they differ bio-geographically. For example, feline genets inhabit:

• Desert-proximitous lands;
• Dry vlei (lakelets), particularly in South Africa’s Free State Province;
• Thicketed vegetation.

They join:

• Cape and common genets on grasslands;
• Common, letabae, miombo, and panther genets on woodland savannahs.

With common genets, they overlook:

• The coastal forests of Cape genets;
• The forest - savannah mosaics of letabae, miombo, and panther genets;
• The montane- and rain-forests of panther genets.

Scientists attribute close-relatedness to:

• Abyssinian (Genetta abyssinica) and Thierry’s haussa (G. thierryi) genets;
• Aquatic (G. piscivora) and Johnston’s (G. johnstoni) genets;
• Feline and miombo genets.

But the above-mentioned relationships do not mean that feline and miombo genets resemble each other more than the other semi-sympatric species. All six species in fact evidence:

• Continuous, dark, full, mid-dorsal, shoulders-to-tail-base line;
• Darkened backsides to upper rear-limbs;
• Low spot density.

But only common and feline genets exhibit:

• Cream-grey upper-sides;
• 8 – 9 each of alternating thinner dark and wider pale rings on a bright-tipped tail;
• Small-sized spots;
• Upper-limb spots forming fragmented horizontal lines.

The more ferret-looking common genets nevertheless have grey inner upper-limbs whereas the more cat-looking felines have darkened inner upper-limbs.

The Basque Country of southwestern Europe accounts for one of the African - Eurasian common small-spotted genet’s naturalized homelands. Basque culture generally calls for nomenclature consistent with the ancient truth Izena duen guzia omen da (“That which has a name exists”). Before the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries’ scientific advances and technological breakthroughs, accepting the existence of 1 aquatic and 13 non-aquatic genet species can be considered accurate identification. But the scientific method commits to informational cycles of collecting, investigating, organizing, re-gathering, and re-interpreting. Current evidence indicates that respecting bio-geographical and biological distinctions involves expanding the non-aquatic species to 16, with promotions from subspecies and synonymousness for:

• Feline genets;
• Letabae genets;
• Schouteden’s genets (Genetta maculata schoutedeni).

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

Port Elizabeth's Boardwalk: a world of 24-hour casinos and entertainment: Bgabel (User: Bgabel at wikivoyage shared), CC BY SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:ZA-PE-boardwalk-pano-1.jpg

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Feline Small-Spotted Genet (Genetta felina)
Nossob Camp, Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park, Northern Cape, South Africa: Bernard DUPONT, CC BY SA 2.0, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/berniedup/40127344853/

Feline Small-Spotted Genet (Genetta felina)
Wroclaw Zoo (Ogród Zoologiczny we Wrocławiu), Lower Silesia, southwestern Poland: Guérin Nicolas, CC BY SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Genetta_genetta_felina_(Wroclaw_zoo).JPG

dead acacia trees (Acacia erioloba) in Dead Vlei, near Sossusvlei, Namibia: Desertman, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:28_Abgestorbene_Bäume_im_Dead_Vlei_in_der_Namib-Wüste,_fotografiert_1997.jpg

Golden Gate Highlands sandstone cliffs: Fihliwe, CC BY SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Golden_Gate_Highlands_Sandstone_cliffs.jpg

Common European Small-Spotted Genet (Genetta genetta)
deux genettes communes (Genetta genetta), parc animalier des Pyrénées, Argelès-Gazost, Hautes-Pyrénées, France: Père Igor, CC BY SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ http://species.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Genette_Argelès-Gazost_parc_animalier_(1).JPG

Genetta felina
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view of Luanda Bay via Promenade, Marginal Avenida 4 de Fevreiro, Luanda: Fabio Vanin, CC BY SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Marginal_Avenida_4_de_Fevreiro_Luanda_March_2013_04.JPG

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view of Cape of Good Hope, from Cape Point: looking west, from coastal cliffs above Cape Point, overlooking Dias beach: Zaian at en.wikipedia, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cape_of_Good_Hope_(Zaian_2008).JPG

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