Remember when the genets were content just to ride on buffaloes? Those days are gone, friends. Clearly emboldened by their buffalo-riding successes, the cat-like carnivores are upgrading their rides.
Your eyes do not deceive you. Like its predecessor, this camera trap image was snapped in South Africa's Hluhluwe Game Reserve and it shows a genet perched on the commodious, leathery hide of a rhinoceros.
The team at local conservation group Wildlife ACT believes it's likely that the same animal was involved in both incidents, but this hasn't been verified yet, so it's still possible that we're looking at a different genet adventurer. What's more interesting is that this unusual behaviour seems to be a first.
"As far as we are aware this is the first recorded behaviour like this. We would love to know if anyone else has recorded something similar and the circumstances surrounding it," says Wildlife ACT's Dr Simon Morgan.
Local wildlife experts can only speculate about what is, er, 'driving' this peculiar behaviour, so if you've got a nugget of wisdom to shed some light on this mystery, let us know. One logical explanation is that a comfy spot on top of a large herbivore gives the genet a great vantage point from which to survey the ground (and pounce on any insects or perhaps small mammals flushed out by the lumbering grazers).
"Looking at the photos you can see that in some the genet is literally going along for a ride, while in a few others the genet is near the head and could [also] be picking ticks off the animal's ears," Morgan adds.
Personally, we think the genets have a different strategy. We reckon this genet rodeo will continue until every last member of the Big Five has been tamed. We've got bets down on who's next.
Watch this space.
Correction: This article originally stated that two different genets were involved in the buffalo and rhino incidents, but it later emerged that it's most likely the same genet culprit.
Top header image: Steve Garvie, Flickr
