Ansó, 24 October
by Isabel Isherwood - 21:58 on 24 October 2016
Rowan has become obsessed with genets.
Since arriving here two months ago I have been coming to realise how much I have to learn about the local mammals. Not only do the ones I know from home do different things here, but there are also lots of species I know nothing about at all. So I bought a Spanish Mammals book; and this is where Rowan discovered the existence of the genet. We now know that genets are close relatives of civets, somewhere in between a cat and a mongoose in appearance, or perhaps better described as a slim and elongated cat. They are pale buff in colour with dark spots and a long, bushy, ringed tail, and are very handsome. They also have the capacity to look extremely cute.
Genets are not native to Spain, but were introduced between 1000 and 1500 years ago from North Africa (where, in turn, they were almost certainly introduced from sub-saharan Africa). The reason that so many folk took it into their heads to cart genets around the globe is because - as well as being good mousers - they are apparently very easy to domesticate and make good pets.
Rowan is becoming quite a keen naturalist, but it is fair to say that her motivation is not really scientific – what she really wants is to meet and make friends with animals. The two species she has been most obsessed with until recently have been otters and wolves, but lately they have been quite eclipsed by the genet. She imagines meeting one in the woods and forming a bond and, some time later, walking around with a genet riding on her shoulder.
I was under the impression that genets were restricted to the hotter and drier bits of spain, until I was helping with some of the mink project work recently and we found genet footprints at one of our sites. So now we know they are here…. Or at least, down at the other end of the valley……!
Given my inability to produce a friendly genet to order, we decided that the next best option would be to see if we could get some pictures of one using a camera trap. Even an unfriendly one would do to start with….. And failing that – well it would be interesting just to find out a bit more about what lives around here.
We picked what we thought might be likely spots – a thicket by the river, and a lovely bit of mixed pine and beech forest with an understorey of box, a short way up the hill. We mounted the cameras on tree trunks and spread sardines and their oil around as bait.
Two days later we went back to see what we had ‘caught’. Down by the river, something had eaten all the sardines, but up in the woods there was no sign that anything had been there at all. Rowan, who had thought that this was the best of the two sites, was in despair (this involved collapsing to the ground and hair-tearing). We decided to leave the camera for another two days.
But two days later the sardines were still there. Rowan did dramatic despair again. She was clearly quite disappointed as well as relishing the opportunity to be dramatic….. We decided that we’d bring the camera back this time – if nothing was eating our bait here then perhaps we hadn’t picked a very good spot.
But back home, as well as two excellent short videos of despairing Rowan, we found that our cameras had picked up much more than we’d realised. The riverside camera had excellent footage of a marten which we have now identified positively as a stone marten (or beech marten – they appear to be the same thing). It is very similar to pine marten, but has smaller ears and a larger, paler bib: almost white, and extending to the tops of its forelegs. The pinewood camera had also been visited by a marten, but in addition we had footage of a mouse, a squirrel and wild boar.
So although we have not yet found our genet, we’re very excited about our results so far!
Project Locate Genet will continue….. The next phase is to set up cameras somewhere a bit further down the valley, when we have time to get down there, but daylight is starting to be a limiting factor on our weekday outdoor activities, with school occupying the time from 10am until 5pm. We’ll keep you updated!
Add your comment