The rusty-spotted genet (''Genetta maculata''), also called panther genet and large-spotted genet, is a genet that is widely distributed in

sub-Saharan Africa Sub-Saharan Africa is the area and regions of the continent of Africa that lie south of the Sahara. These include Central Africa, East Africa, Southern Africa, and West Africa. Geopolitically, in addition to the list of sovereign states and ...

. It is considered common and therefore listed as

Least Concern A least-concern species is a species that has been evaluated and categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as not being a focus of wildlife conservation because the specific species is still plentiful in the wil ...

on the

IUCN Red List The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species, also known as the IUCN Red List or Red Data Book, founded in 1964, is an inventory of the global conservation status and extinction risk of biological ...

Characteristics

The rusty-spotted genet has short whitish grey to pale yellow coloured fur with dark spots and a continuous dark line across the back. The spots of the upper two dorsal rows are round or square, brown in the center and darker outside. In head-to-body length it ranges from . Its long tail is ringed and has a dark tip. Its feet are of the same colour as the fur. It weighs from .

Behaviour and ecology

Research in southeastern

Nigeria Nigeria, officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf of Guinea in the Atlantic Ocean to the south. It covers an area of . With Demographics of Nigeria, ...

revealed that the rusty-spotted genet has an

omnivorous An omnivore () is an animal that regularly consumes significant quantities of both plant and animal matter. Obtaining energy and nutrients from plant and animal matter, omnivores digest carbohydrates, protein, fat, and fiber, and metabolize ...

diet. It feeds on

rodents Rodents (from Latin , 'to gnaw') are mammals of the order Rodentia ( ), which are characterized by a single pair of continuously growing incisors in each of the upper and lower jaws. About 40% of all mammal species are rodents. They are n ...

like giant pouched rats (''Cricetomys''), Nigerian shrew (''Crocidura nigeriae''), Temminck's mouse (''Mus musculoides''), Tullberg's soft-furred mouse (''Praomys tulbergi''), Peters's striped mouse (''Hybomys univittatus''), typical striped grass mouse (''Lemniscomys striatus''), red-eyed dove (''Streptopelia semitorquata''), common agama (''Agama agama''), '' Mabuya'' skinks,

Myriapoda Myriapods () are the members of subphylum Myriapoda, containing arthropods such as millipedes and centipedes. The group contains about 13,000 species, all of them terrestrial. Although molecular evidence and similar fossils suggests a diversifi ...

spider Spiders (order (biology), order Araneae) are air-breathing arthropods that have eight limbs, chelicerae with fangs generally able to inject venom, and spinnerets that extrude spider silk, silk. They are the largest order of arachnids and ran ...

Orthoptera Orthoptera () is an order of insects that comprises the grasshoppers, locusts, and crickets, including closely related insects, such as the bush crickets or katydids and wētā. The order is subdivided into two suborders: Caelifera – gras ...

and

Coleoptera Beetles are insects that form the Taxonomic rank, order Coleoptera (), in the superorder Holometabola. Their front pair of wings are hardened into wing-cases, elytra, distinguishing them from most other insects. The Coleoptera, with about 40 ...

as well as eggs, fruits, berries and seeds.

Taxonomy

In 1830,

John Edward Gray John Edward Gray (12 February 1800 – 7 March 1875) was a British zoologist. He was the elder brother of zoologist George Robert Gray and son of the pharmacologist and botanist Samuel Frederick Gray (1766–1828). The same is used for a z ...

first described a rusty-spotted genet using the name ''Viverra maculata'' based on a zoological specimen that lived in the

menagerie A menagerie is a collection of captive animals, frequently exotic, kept for display; or the place where such a collection is kept, a precursor to the modern zoo or zoological garden. The term was first used in 17th-century France, referring to ...

at the

Tower of London The Tower of London, officially His Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress of the Tower of London, is a historic citadel and castle on the north bank of the River Thames in central London, England. It lies within the London Borough of Tower Hamle ...

. In the 19th and 20th centuries, several taxonomists proposed the following

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

and

subspecies In Taxonomy (biology), biological classification, subspecies (: subspecies) is a rank below species, used for populations that live in different areas and vary in size, shape, or other physical characteristics (Morphology (biology), morpholog ...

for specimens obtained by

natural history museum A natural history museum or museum of natural history is a scientific institution with natural history scientific collection, collections that include current and historical records of animals, plants, Fungus, fungi, ecosystems, geology, paleo ...

s: *''fieldiana'' Du Chaillu, 1860 *''aequatorialis'' Heuglin, 1866 *''erlangeri'', ''gleimi'', ''schraderi'', ''stuhlmanni'', ''suahelica'', ''zambesiana'' Matschie, 1902 *''matschiei''

Neumann Neumann () is a German language, German surname, with its origins in the pre-7th-century (Old English) word ''wikt:neowe, neowe'' meaning "new", with ''wikt:mann, mann'', meaning man. The English form of the name is Newman. Von Neumann is a varian ...

, 1902 *''pumila'' Hollister, 1916 *''insularis'' Cabrera, 1921 *''rubiginosa zuluensis'' Roberts, 1924 *''soror'' Schwarz, 1929 *''rubiginosa albiventris'' Roberts, 1932 *''deorum'' Funaioli and Simonetta, 1960 *''pardina schoutedeni'' Crawford-Cabral, 1970 '' Genetta letabae'' (

Thomas Thomas may refer to: People * List of people with given name Thomas * Thomas (name) * Thomas (surname) * Saint Thomas (disambiguation) * Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) Italian Dominican friar, philosopher, and Doctor of the Church * Thomas the A ...

and Schwann, 1906), formerly considered a subspecies, is now thought to be a separate species.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:genet, rusty-spotted rusty-spotted genet Mammals of Sub-Saharan Africa rusty-spotted genet rusty-spotted genet