Servaline Genets (Genetta servalina): Ringtails of Central East and West Africa

Behaviors, bio-geographies, genetics, and physiques account for the species within a genus. Servaline genets belong to the genet genus Genetta. The genus name brings in the French spelling genette of the original Arabic designation jarnait for the amiable, beautiful, cautious, domesticable, elusive, fast, graceful spotted-and-striped mammal in question. Servaline genets claim sole membership in the genet species servalina. The species name comes from constructing the modern Latin term servalina from:

• The Portuguese designation lobo cerval for lynx (Felis serval);

• The Latin suffix -ina for “of, pertaining, or relating to.”

Modern taxonomy's binomial (“two-name”) requirements demand a genus and species for all officially described organisms. As with servaline genets, they may be expanded to accommodate subspecies.  

Servalines articulate 5 subspecies. G.s. servalina – of Cameroon, Central African Republic, Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and Sudan – comes from French zoologist Jacques Pucheran (June 2, 1817 – January 13, 1895) in 1855. The nominate (“first-to-be-named”) joins:

• G.s. archeri of Zanzibar per Belgian veterinarian Harry van Rompaey (April 5, 1936 – February 2, 2007) and French biologist Marc Colyn in 1998;

• G.s. bettoni of Burundi, Congo, Kenya, Rwanda, Sudan, and Uganda per British zoologist Michael Rogers Oldfield Thomas (February 21, 1858 – June 16, 1929) in 1902;

• G.s. lowei of Tanzania per Tanzanian zoologist Jonathon Kingdon in 1977;

• G.s. schwarzi of Burundi, Congo, and Rwanda per Portuguese mammalogist João Crawford-Cabral in 1970.

Bio-geographical and corporeal subtleties differentiate the servaline genet's subspecies. All servalines nevertheless exhibit super-spotted, tawny upper-sides with:

• Broken, dark, shoulders-to-tail-base, mid-dorsal line crossed longitudinally by a tawny stripe;

• Dark lower limbs;

• Dark-backed outer upper limbs with spots forming fragmented horizontal lines;

• Dark-haired soles;

• Orange-yellow-brown to orange-yellow-grey under-sides.

The bright-tipped, cylindrical tail has:

• A dark stripe subtly smudging the top-side longitudinally;

• 9 – 11 bright rings less than 20% wider than correspondingly dark stripes.

The head includes:

• Alert, rounded ears;

• Big, dark-adapted, rounded eyes;

• Dark, thin chin line;

• Tapered muzzle with fine, super-sensory whiskers.

  It tops a yellow throat framed by stripes from the ears downward.   

Servaline life cycles and natural histories elude scientists. Servalines historically fit Smithsonian National Natural History Museum mammalogist Dr. Kristofer Helgen's conferring ghost status to museum-only skins and skulls. But camera-trapping gives real-time to:

• Lowe's servalines in Tanzania's Udzungwa range in 2000 and Nguru and Uluguru ranges in 2002;

• Wildlife consultant Tony Archer's servalines in Zanzibar's Jozani-Chwaka Bay National Park in 2003.

 Data and mature specimens indicate: 

• Head-and-body lengths: 17.52 – 20.08 inches (445 – 510 millimeters);

• Paw lengths: 2.76 – 3.15 inches (70 – 80 millimeters);

• Tail lengths: 13.78 – 17.32 inches (350 – 440 millimeters);

• Tail-hair lengths: 0.79 - 1.18 inches (20 – 30 millimeters);

• Weights: 4.41 – 6.61 pounds (2 – 3 kilograms).

Scientists attribute to servalines:

• Night-foraying couples or singles;

• Non-overlapping territories for same-gender neighbors and overlapping for mixed;

• Permanent dens in tree burrows or hollows;

• Regular latrines;

• Stress from predatory mammals, raptors, and reptiles;

• Terrestrial forages as obligate carnivores (“flesh-eaters”) of small mammals and opportunistic omnivores (“everything-eaters”) of fruits, insects, and small reptiles.

They consider:

• Physical and sexual maturity at 4 years;

• Rain-season matings of April/May and September/October;

• Twice-yearly litters of 1 grey-furred offspring whose ears and eyes open within 2 weeks and whose suckling by the mother's sole pair of teats precedes emancipation.

They suspect:

• Generations of 7 years;

• Life expectancies of 5 – 15 years.   

Some genets favor rainforest-specific niches. The servaline genet is not among them. Servalines may frequent such varied forested and wooded habitats as:

• Coral rag thickets;

• Dry scrublands;

• Forest-savannah mosaics;

• Gallery and groundwater forests;

• High-altitude bamboo forests;

• Montane forests;

• Primary and secondary-growth forested lowlands;

• Rainforests;

• Woodland savannahs.

Local anecdotes and scientific research place servalines at above-sea-level altitudes of:

• 984.25 – 5,905.51 feet (300 – 1,800 meters);

• 6,889.76 – 9,842.52 feet (2,100 – 3,000 meters);

• 11,482.94 – 14,435.70 feet (3,500 – 4,400 meters).

They share bio-geographies with aquatic fish-eating (Genetta piscivora), giant forest (G. victoriae), king (G. poensis), rusty-spotted panther (G. maculata), and Schouteden's (G. schoutedeni) genets.  

Servaline genets answer to:

• Kanu among Swahili-speakers;

• Uhange (“red-colored”) and uchui or ushundwi (“leopard-like”) in Zanzibar.

They are renowned as:

• Affectionately loyal pets;

• Sources of soft-furred bracelets, hats, and loincloths and tasty bushmeat.

Their resource-rich homeland brims with:

• Modernizing and tradition-bound interactions;

• Urban-wildland interfaces.

Self-defense is inadequate despite:

• Acute hearing, seeing, smelling, tasting, and touching;

• Handstand-released stinkbombs;

• Sharp incisors (12), canines (4), premolars (16), and molars (8);

• Stand-up boxing;

• Super-fast digitigrade (“on-the-digits,” “tiptoed”) ascents, descents, jumps, leaps, and runs;

• 20 curved, retractable, super-sharp claws.

Sustainable futures require governmental protection, scientific research, and visitor support against:

• Globally-warmed climate change;

• Unrestrained agro-industrialism;

• Zealous over-hunting.   

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

J.A. Allen, "Carnivora Collected by the American Museum Congo Expedition."
Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History, vol. XLVII (April 11, 1924), Plate XV, Fig. 1, between pp. 282-283: via Internet Archive @ https://archive.org/stream/bulletinamerican47ameruoft#page/n339/mode/1up

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:Servaline_Genet_area.png

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

Genetta servalina in Cameroon; description made in 1855 from species from Gabon, Cameroon's southern neighbor.: Andrew Self (Andrewself at English Wikipedia), CC BY SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Servaline_Genet.jpg

J.A. Allen, "Carnivora Collected by the American Museum Congo Expedition."
Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History, vol. XLVII (April 11, 1924), Fig. 19, p. 129: via Internet Archive @ https://archive.org/details/bulletinamerican47ameruoft/page/129/mode/1up

J.A. Allen, "Carnivora Collected by the American Museum Congo Expedition."
Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History, vol. XLVII (April 11, 1924), Plate XIV, Fig. 2, between pp. 283-283: via Internet Archive @ https://archive.org/details/bulletinamerican47ameruoft/page/n337/mode/1up

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entrance to Jozani Forest, Zanzibar: MacElwee, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Jozani_forest,_Zanzibar.jpg; Kent MacElwee, CC BY 2.0, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/44335492@N00/410863153

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