Rusty-Spotted Panther Genets (Genetta maculata): Ringtails of Central, Eastern and Southern Africa

One litter accommodates all-black and rusty-spotted panther genets. Melanistic morphs appear dark from nose- to tail-tip. Rusty-spotted forms begin as grey-furred kittens. They quickly develop dark-and-light banded tails and red-brown body spots. But the body never gets heavily spotted. The spots never merge into fragmented horizontal lines along the upper limbs. Dark hairs obscure the outer sides of:

• Rear paws;
• Upper limbs.

Darkened hair likewise obscures:

• The chin area;
• The hairy soles;
• The last of 6 – 9 bright rings alternating with corresponding numbers of 50 – 75% narrower dark tail stripes.

A dark stripe runs mid-dorsally from the shoulders to the tail base while another smudges the upper side of the tail from the base to the tip.

Forested and wooded habitats at higher altitudes up to 11,154.86 feet (3,400 meters) above sea level attract panther genets.  They average in monthly environmental configurations:

• 73.98°F (23.32°C) for temperature;
• 3.81 inches (96.79 millimeters) for precipitation;
• 39.11 inches (993.46 millimeters) for evapo-transpiration.

They entail bio-geographical niches in:

• Angola;
• Benin, Botswana, Burundi;
• Cameroon, Centrafrique, Chad, Congo Republic;
• Democratic Republic of the Congo;
• Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia;
• Gabon, Ghana;
• Kenya;
• Malawi, Mozambique;
• Namibia, Nigeria;
• Rwanda;
• Somalia, Sudan;
• Tanzania, Togo;
• Uganda;
• Zambia.

They exclude:

• Super-arid regions;
• Super-dry savannahs.

They include environments fragmented by export revenue-generating oil palm plantations. They may be joined by suitable tracts within:

• Closed and open woodlands;
• Cultivated, farm, and suburbanized lands;
• Mixed, riverside vegetation;
• Swamplands;
• Thicketed lands.

Abyssinian (Genetta abyssinica), African-Eurasian common small-spotted (G. genetta), aquatic (G. piscivora), crested (G. cristata), giant (victoriae), king (G. poensis), miombo (G. angolensis), panther, Schouteden’s (G. schoutedeni), servaline (G. servalina), and Thierry’s (G. thierryi) genets are sympatric (“same-ranging”). Common and panther genets overlap everywhere except dense forests. Panther genets additionally share:

• Forest and savannah mosaics with giant, miombo, Schouteden’s, and servaline genets;
• Grassy savannahs with Thierry’s genets;
• Montane forests with Abyssinian, Schouteden’s, and servaline genets;
• Rainforests with crested, giant, king, Schouteden’s, and servaline genets;
• Woodland savannahs with miombo, Schouteden’s, and servaline genets.

Female panther genets probably will deliver more melanistic morphs in the darker, denser, moister bio-geographies of extensively closed canopies than in drier, more light-filled, open-canopied environments.

Experts accept subtleties within a species. That deep truth accounts for recognizing the panther genet’s melanistic morphs and rusty-spotted standards. Scientists allow slack as long as specimens remain true to the species’:

• Behavior;
• Bio-geography;
• Form and function;
• Genetics;
• Physique.

The slack carries specialists from binomial (“two-name”) to trinomial (“three-name”) taxonomies. For example, the binomial, Latin, scientific or taxonomic classification currently describes panther genets as Genetta maculata. The genus name functions as “invented,” modern Latin for the French intermediate word genette and the original Arabic term jarnait for today’s athletic, charming, elusive, graceful, intelligent wild animal capable of affectionately loyal domestication. Genets indeed have longstanding lineages and reputations as  favorites in:

• Ancient Egypt;
• Islamicized North Africa;
• Moorish Spain.

The species name maculata acknowledges the panther genet’s distinctly large corporeal spots. It can be followed by a third name for a subspecies. The first subspecies to warrant official scientific designation gets called the nominate. It has the same name as the holotype (specimen inspiring species status), Genetta maculata maculata, collected 3.73 miles (6 kilometers) from Ethiopia’s Harrar Road, at an elevation of 7,152.23 feet (2,180 meters) above sea level. Its presentation to non-specialists and scientists outside Africa is dated to the taxonomic expertise in 1830 of Walsall-born British zoologist John Edward Gray (February 12, 1800 – March 7, 1875), as:

• Botany and medicine student;
• British Museum zoology keeper, 1840 – 1874;
• Publisher of 1,000+ museum catalogues and papers.

A nominate cannot exist without the identification of at least 1 other subspecies. The number of panther genet subspecies currently depends upon individual expert conclusions and prevailing scientific consensus. For example, biological singularities encourage Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle scientist Philippe Gaubert to elevate the subspecies Genetta maculata letabae to the species Genetta letabae.  They inspire established and upcoming mammalogists to re-examine today’s:

• 1 Africa-, Asia-, and Europe-based non-aquatic genet species;
• 1 aquatic genet species;
• 12 – 15 sub-Saharan Africa-based non-aquatic species.

The attention is particularly necessary regarding all-black and rusty-spotted panthers, whose distribution is the most widespread of Africa’s genets and whose life cycles and natural histories therefore reveal genet adaptability or inadaptability to twenty-first century environmental stresses.

Behavior and bio-geography account for the panther genet’s stable populations:

• Home territories border for same-gender adults and overlap for mixed-gender;
• Individual hygiene demands clean burrow-, crevice-, hollow-based dens, communal off-site latrines, and no-mess-no-spill dining;
• Paired or solitary forages elude daytime’s predatory mammals, raptors, and reptiles and expect such night-shift prey as eggs, fruits, insects, and small birds, mammals, and reptiles;
• Predator-proof self-defenses include acute senses, arched backs, digitigrade (tiptoed) getaways, handstand-thrown stink-bombs, hissed saliva-balls, kick-boxing paws, raised hair, and sharp claws and teeth;
• Species solidarity involves communication by gesture, hearing, scent, sight, sound, taste, and touch.

But sustainability faces:

• Bush-meat, fur, and pet over-hunting;
• Globally-warmed climate change;
• Habitat-fragmenting agro-industrialism.

It requires:

• Environmental activism;
• Government-protected bio-geographies;
• Scientific prioritization.

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

Pico Basilé, eastern coast of Bioko, western African coast: Serge Moons, CC BY SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pico_Basilé.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://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Rusty-spotted_Genet_area.png

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Genetta maculata
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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

Rusty-Spotted Panther Genet (Genetta maculata)
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Tamboti Camp, Kruger National Park, Mpumalanga, South Africa: Bernard DUPONT, CC BY SA 2.0, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/berniedup/17182271029/

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