Garden Safari III: Kobus Rescues a Genet Baby

Life moves from the routine to the adventurous at the oddest and most unexpected moments. Last night, Simon and I were lying in bed reading a bedtime story when Kobus called us to come quickly. He led us out to the screened in porch that serves as our dining and living room and shone a light out into the night beyond. There, floundering in the bright beam was a tiny creature – a baby genet cat. At that point we could not discuss its provenance because it was under threat from our Jack Russell terrier. Our dog has already caught a slightly more mature genet that had to be destroyed because she broke its back so we had to move fast to restrain the dog before deciding what to do with this baby.

With the dog safely locked in our kitchen, we went outside to survey the situation. The little one was still staggering around the spot where it was first seen. Kobus then explained that he had heard it drop from the roof overhang outside. At first he thought it was one of the healthy population of bats that live in our roof but when he had a look he was surprised to discover the baby. The poor thing had fallen through a weak spot in the material that closes off the underside of the roof. There was a piece of rotted ceiling lying near the baby. I didn’t need to be asked twice to go and fetch my camera.

I handed Kobus a couple rags to protect his hands and he scooped up the little animal to see if there was any damage from its fall. It appeared to be unhurt and very docile in Kobus’ hands. It quickly moved from abject terror to only slight discomfort at this unusual turn of events in its short experience. In fact Kobus felt confident enough to let Simon touch and handle the beautiful little creature as well.

We know that at least one Small-spotted Genet (Genetta genetta) lives in our roof because we see her quite regularly sitting in the open among the shrubbery that grows on the roof and in a big tree that overhangs the roof. We’ve also seen her bounding through the garden and showing us how dexterous she is in climbing trees. The dog sits lookout for her every evening but in our own observation of her habits we’ve discovered that she’s quite aware that the dog is there and is adept at avoiding the dog’s gaze.

Genets are one of several smaller wild cats of Africa. They have larger cousins called Large-spotted genets. Apparently, there are many variations between the two to be found. We had assumed our resident is a “she” because of the earlier sad incident when the dog caught a young one. According to our field guides, little is known of genet cats beyond the most basic information. We do know that litters of young can range in size from 2-4 individuals and that genets are nocturnal hunters of insects and other smallish beasts such as scorpions. Given all the scorpions we found in our house last year and the two painful stings I suffered, we’re quite happy to have a resident family of pretty animals that are known to hunt such ugly beasts.

We surmised that this baby was between perhaps three and six weeks old. After ten days their eyes are open and at six weeks they start hunting and roaming on their own which was not quite the case with this little wanderer. We think that it was exploring the space above our ceilings when its mother was out for the night hunting. Given the docility we thought that it had not yet been weaned from its mother’s milk and was certainly not yet a hunter in its own right. Of course we were a little concerned that it would not be accepted back into the litter after having been handled but we were also drawn to it. Kobus in particular would have loved to try to hand raise it in the house. The practicalities of that would have been pretty challenging to say the least.

As our hearts warred with our minds, Simon and I held on to the little creature while Kobus climbed up to see if he could find a spot to safely put him back in the roof. Simon was obviously quite impressed with the genet baby and we were pleased with how gently he handled it. At not quite two and a half years old he has had some very interesting experiences with African wildlife.

Satisfied that he could attempt to release the baby into a spot where the roof was solid enough to hold it, Kobus took the baby from us and put him back up in the roof. We didn’t hear anything further and we haven’t found any tell-tale remains that would have indicated a less than happy ending to the night’s adventure. So we’re feeling somewhat confident that the baby found its way back to its litter mates and its mother came home none the wiser about the strange smells her baby picked up while she was out. It would be nice to be able to say that we’re 100% sure of that but all we can say is that we did the best we could and that we’re all very happy to have the memory of coming so close to such a beautiful creature that shares our home with us.