This genet occurs in southern Africa. It has a pale grey coat with a continuous black line down the middle of its back, and uses grassland, open woodland and thickets.
The coat is bright whitish grey, with a continuous black line along the middle of the back; the hind feet are dark.
The Feline Genet is a southern African member of the civet family. It is mainly active at night and uses shrub cover and riverine vegetation in South Africa’s Great Fish River Nature Reserve.
Published in 2024, a study analysed radio-tracking observations from 15 individuals in the reserve. Fieldwork took place in 2005–2007, 2010–2011 and 2017–2019. Collar signals distinguished movement from rest, revealing how activity was distributed across the night.
During the cold-dry season, April–September, activity concentrated early in the night, peaked around 20:00–21:00 and declined towards dawn. In the hot-wet season, October–March, the animals remained active throughout the night, with gentle early- and late-night peaks. The authors suggested that reduced winter activity might help conserve body heat. A nocturnal lifestyle can thus involve different seasonal uses of the night.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.
For South Africa’s Albany Thicket landscapes, the 2024 researchers recommended retaining structurally complex riverine woodland and patches of trees and shrubs in more open habitats. They suggested that this could help small-spotted genets adjust their activity and potentially reduce reliance on riverine woodland and competition with Cape Genets.