Aquatic genet

The aquatic genet, also called the fishing genet, is one of Africa's rarest carnivorans, known from only about thirty museum specimens and recorded only in the northeast of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Joel Asaph Allen described it in 1919 in its own genus, Osbornictis, but molecular evidence led to its transfer to Genetta in 2004. Its long dense fur is a dark chestnut red without the spots or bands of other genets, the head is paler with white spots by the muzzle and eyes, and the bushy tail is black. Its teeth suggest a diet of fish, and it is thought to be solitary and crepuscular, feeding mainly on freshwater fish and also on crustaceans. It lives in rainforest east of the Congo River at 460 to 1,500 metres. Long listed as Data Deficient, it was reassessed as Near Threatened in 2015, and Congolese law has fully protected it since 1979.