Genet

Small cat with short legs, pointed snout and ringed tail. The muzzle is pointed and the ears are rounded. No two animals are exactly alike. Two to four young are born during the summer months, usually in the mother's daytime shelter.

Genets are often seen at night in the wilds. The small-spotted genet has habits similar to the large-spotted genet: it is nocturnal, scales trees, uses tree-holes, undergrowth or disused burrows as shelter in the day, and eats insects, mice and rats, geckos, frogs, snakes and scorpions. It stalks its prey like a cat.

In defence it will arch its back and the hair down the spine will bristle, while also emitting an unpleasant odour from a secretion in its anal glands. Genets return to the same place day after day, hunting mostly on the ground. They spit and growl like cats when they are angry or threatened. Their normal call is a clear metallic note

Genets were kept as pets by the ancient Egyptians, the genet was kept as a rat catcher The domestic cat eventually replaced the genet, probably because it is more efficient at killing rats-and perhaps because it is less smelly