Agile Climbing Carnivore: the Large-Spotted Genet

Explanation: This beautiful and lithe carnivore of southern and central Africa looks like it belongs to the family of weasels, minks, martens, and fishers ... but it doesn't. This is a viverid, of family Viverridae, an Old World family of carnivores that includes civets, linsangs, the binturong, and our star this week, genets.

More specifically, this is a large-spotted genet (also called blotched genet and cape genet) ... one of about nine genet species found in Africa. Taxonomy of this species seems to be interesting, to put it mildly, as there are perhaps a couple dozen described races and subspecies.

Large-spotted genets vary a great deal in appearance, with some individuals (or subspecies) having more contrasting spots, some darker, some lighter, and other variations.

This week's photos show how agile this species can be, climbing a tall platform tower outside the rooms at Sarena Mountain Lodge on Mount Kenya, east Africa, to chow down on a raw bone wired into the top, as shown in the following photo:

And pelage color can vary a great deal even between individuals at the same location -- in this case, on the same feeding platform:

EPOW - Ecology Picture of the Week