Bourlon's genet

Bourlon's genet is a genet of the Upper Guinean forests of West Africa, recorded in Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia and the Ivory Coast. Philippe Gaubert described it as a separate species in 2003 from a skin and skull collected in Guinea in 1958, and it is named for Philippe Bourlon, a zoo keeper at the Paris Zoological Park. It has thick short cream coloured fur with brown markings and dark spots that vary in size and shape, hind limbs generally free of spots, white marks around the snout with distinct black lines across the face, and a large tail with five to seven black rings. The sexes are similar in size. It was first recorded by camera trap in the Putu Mountains of Liberia between December 2010 and May 2011. Habitat loss and hunting threaten it, and with fewer than 10,000 individuals estimated it is listed as Vulnerable.