King Genets (Genetta poensis): Ringtails in Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Ghana, Ivory Coast and Liberia

Bioko accepts as native wildlife king genets. Niches other than on Equatorial Guinea’s main island attract king genets to:

• Congo  Republic;
• Ghana;
• Ivory Coast;
• Liberia.

But scientists confer special roles to Bioko for:

• Hosting  disjunct (bio-geographically disconnected) king genets;
• Providing the holotype (specimen warranting species status).

Bioko’s uniqueness is memorialized in the king genet’s binomial (“two-name”), Latin, scientific, or taxonomic identification in 1838 by George Robert Waterhouse (March 6, 1810 – January 21, 1888), as:

• Somers Town-born child of an amateur entomologist employed in solicitor’s clerkships;
• Vale of Heath garden design apprentice to English publisher Charles Knight’s (March 15, 1791 – March 9, 1873) architect;
• Royal Institution at Liverpool, Zoological Society of London, and British Natural History Museum curator.

Genetta poensis acts as the currently official classification for the king genet. The genus name Genetta arises from scientific attempts to modernize Latin. It comes from the French invention of the designation genette from the original word jarnait. Historical records apparently do not preserve forms more ancient than the above-mentioned Arabic term even though genets approximated cats in their status as beloved pets in Pharaonic Egypt.  “Invented,” modern Latin likewise explains the species name. Poensis honors one of the two names given by Europeans to the modern Bioko:

• Formosa Flora (“Beautiful Flower”) is the name given by the island’s European discoverer, Fernão do Pó, in 1472;
• Fernando Pó is the name given by Portuguese settlers in 1494.

Bourlon’s (Genetta bourloni), rusty-spotted panther (G. maculata), and servaline (G. servalina) genets also appear on the list of Equatorial Guinea’s natives even though king and pardine (G. pardina) genets are related more closely. The term sympatric (“same-ranging”) indeed can be applied to six genets whose homelands overlap entirely or partially with the king’s sub-Saharan African bio-geography. All six echo the king genet’s predilection for dense rainforests. But they also find other habitats suitable.

• Dry savannahs harbor rusty-spotted panther genets.
• Forest-savannah  mosaics and woodland savannahs house Bourlon’s, Johnston’s (G. johnstoni), pardine, rusty-spotted panther, Schouteden’s (G. schoutedeni), and servaline genets.
• Moist mixed woodland savannahs lure Bourlon’s genets.
• Montane forests number among their native niche-dwellers Johnston’s, pardine, and Schouteden’s genets.  

But a leonine golden yellow distinguishes the king genet. It embellishes the body, the head, and the upper limbs. It functions as a deeply rich contrast to:

• Black, rusty, and white spots attractively and heavily marking the body and the upper limbs;
• Black-haired soles;
• Dark fore-limbs, inner upper rear-limbs, and paws;
• Dark mid-dorsal line running continuously from shoulders to tail base;
• Dark, thin chin stripe;
• Dark-backed upper rear-limbs.

The spots merge into:

• Fragmented horizontal lines across the upper rear-limbs;
• Irregular, long, slender lines along the flanks.

The dark-tipped tail mixes 4 – 7 each of bright bands about 20% narrower than broad dark rings. A dark stripe longitudinally smudges the tail’s upper side continuously from base to tip.

The colors accord with light and shadow playing over lowland tropical rainforest vegetation. The camouflage blends with the king genet’s twining, vegetation-like, winding lines:

• Elongated, graceful body, head, and tail;
• Muscled, short, slender limbs.

King genet shapes indeed hold onto their agile trimness from grey-furred birth to physical and sexual maturity’s:

• Head-and-body lengths of 16.81 – 27.17 inches (42.7 – 69 centimeters);
• Tail lengths of 13.78 – 18.31 inches (35 – 46.5 centimeters);
• Tail-hair lengths of 0.79 – 1.18 inches (2 – 3 centimeters);
• Weights of 4.41 - 6.61 pounds (2 – 3 kilograms).

They make king genets look fox-faced, leopard-spotted, mongoose-legged, squirrel-ankled, and raccoon-tailed. They predict feline-reminiscent self-defenses with:

• 12 incisors, 4 canines, 16 premolars, and 8 molars;
• 20 curved, retractable, sharp claws.

Ten king genet specimens exist in museums worldwide. The last collection has a date of 1946. So the available information is dependent upon local anecdotes, which are not forthcoming from flesh- and fur-hunting villagers. Until specifics emerge from solid research, scientists therefore hypothesize life cycles and natural histories involving:

• Bi-annual litters of 1 – 2 offspring since females have just 1 pair of teats;
• Dependent pre-adulthoods until ears and eyes are opened, food becomes solid, and hunting gets perfected;
• Paired or solitary adulthoods of daytime naps, night-time forages, and rainy-season matings;
• Conflict avoidance of predatory mammals, raptors, and reptiles;
• Daily grooming with tongue-moistened paws;
• No-mess-no-spill table manners;
• Opportunistic diets of fruits, insects, and small birds, mammals, and reptiles.

Mammalogists express no immediate concerns over the sustainability of king genet populations. They find the night-tripping tree-lover sufficiently elusive in behavior and extensive in bio-geography to survive twenty-first century stresses. They know that king genets are master escape artists who appreciate extended communities with:

• Bordering territories for same-gender neighbors and overlapping for mixed-gender;
• Individual burrows, crevices, and hollows;
• Off-site latrines;
• Regular pathways.

They realize that king genet self-defenses reluctantly include:

• Handstand-released stink-bombing;
• Kick-boxing;
• Neck-biting;
• Saliva-balls;
• Stand-up punching;
• Wrestling takedowns.

They understand that king genets can wriggle in and out of anything at least as large as their heads. But specialists still welcome government-protected bio-geographies, scientific funding, and wildlife-loving support against:

• Globally-warmed climate change;
• Habitat-fragmenting agro-industrialism;
• Population-threatening over-hunting.

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

Map of Gulf of Guinea, showing chain of islands -- including Bioko -- formed by Cameroon line of volcanoes: Amcaja, CC BY SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Gulf_of_Guinea_(English).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:King_Genet_area.png

George Robert Waterhouse, Genetta poensis describer
1851 Lithograph by T.H. (Thomas Herbert) Maguire (1821-April 1895): Public Domain Mark, via Wellcome Collection @ https://wellcomecollection.org/works/gqjn7xe8

Genetta pardina
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Umbella Tree or African Corkwood Tree (Musanga cecropioides), Mayombe (or Mayumbe) forests, southwestern Republic of Congo: FabMoustic, CC BY SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mayombe-parasolier.JPG

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Boskat Genetta genettoides Genetta poensis
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