Blotched Genet | GVI Kenya

Dead Baby Genet Found In Shimoni Forest

Category: Shimoni Forest, genets | Date: Nov 05 2009 | By: gvikenya

Yesterday our forest team went out in the late afternoon to see if we could get some colobus behaviour done, as we are lacking data for that time of the day. We didn’t manage to get a sighting good enough, but on our way back we got a sighting we certainly did not expect – a dead baby genet!

It was lying directly on our north/south spine, so there was no way we could have missed it. Having only ever seen one genet in the forest before (during a night walk), I was truly excited, albeit rather sad. I immediately guessed it was a young one purely based on its size, and it had a relatively large hole in its upper body.

This photo shows the broad-based, rounded ears

It was getting late and the light was fading, so we covered it in a temporary tomb of coral blocks, to protect it from scavengers until the next day when we could come back and inspect it in more detail. So this morning we went back to the same spot, armed with a camera, a measuring tape and a spring balance.

The genet being weighed using a spring balance

Its measurements were as follows:

• Head-body (from the tip of the nose to the base of the tail): 24 cm
• Foreleg: 6 cm
• Hind leg: 10 cm
• Tail: 20 cm
• Weight: 175 g

From the photographs we got, it is clear that it is either a common genet (Genetta genetta) or a blotched genet (Genetta tigrina). Personally I’m leaning towards the blotched genet, for the following reasons;

Common genets have rather coarse fur whereas bloched genets have much softer fur. I touched the fur, and it was definitely soft!
Common genets have a short crest of longer fur along the spine, and the blotched genet does not. We did not see a spine of longer fur on our genet.
The common genet has small, numerous and linear spots on a sandy background. Although our genet did have small numerous spots, they do not appear as tidy or linear as the picture in the book suggests (Kingdon, 1997).
The blotched genet has broad-based, slightly rounded ears in comparison with the more pointed ears of the common genet.
The common genet has a small patch of pale or white fur at the tip of the tail, when the blotched genet does not. Ours appeared to have a black tip of the tail.
Furthermore, the coat of the blotched genet can be extremely variable with regards to colour and pattern, and different coloured morphs exist in the same area. This had led to the naming of many subspecies.

This shows the extent of the wound

All of this said, I think it is very difficult to say for sure, purely because of the age of the animal. It is obviously very young, as its body and tail length are approximately half the minimum length of an adult of both the common and blotched genets, and its weight is approximately one seventh of the minimum weight of an adult of either species. So many of the key features for successful identification may have not have developed yet.

Anyway, it was incredibly interesting to see one of these shy, nocturnal animals so close. They are truly beautiful little creatures, that are found in the Viverridae family that includes all genets and civets.