Genet
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40 free Genet trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
The genet looks like a cross between a cat, a ferret and a lemur, yet it is none of these. Slender, spotted and long-tailed, genets slip through the forests and savannas of Africa, and one species has made itself at home in southern Europe. Few people ever see one, which is part of the appeal. This quiz turns the best fun facts about the genet into questions: how genets find and catch their food, how they see off enemies, how kittens grow up, and what sets the rarer species apart. Other questions follow the genet into human history, from the people who first carried it across the sea to the naturalists and legends that made it known. It suits wildlife lovers, safari planners, students and teachers, and anyone who has spotted an unfamiliar animal on a trail camera. Every answer comes with a short explanation, so you will finish knowing far more about genets than when you started.
30 of 40 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01A camera trap in South Africa filmed a genet riding on a rhinoceros and which other large animal?
Buffalo
Buffalo were the other mounts: the 2014 footage from Hluhluwe–Imfolozi Park showed two different ones carrying the genet. It was the first record of a genet hitch-hiking.
Q 02An angry or frightened genet can drive off enemies using a defence best known from which animal?
Skunk
Skunk tactics work for genets too: an angry, frightened or injured genet can squirt a foul-smelling substance that deters its enemies.
Q 03A genet's flexible body can squeeze through any opening that is larger than which part of itself?
Its head
Its head is the only limit: the long, lean body behind it is flexible enough to follow through any gap that wide.
Q 04A genet's body is usually covered in spots, but which pattern typically marks its long tail?
Rings
Rings of dark and pale fur run the length of the tail, and a common genet can carry anywhere from eight to thirteen of them.
Q 05Common genets are stealthy hunters of rodents and birds; by which sense do they mainly locate prey?
Scent
Scent leads a common genet to its prey, and the bare tip of its nose is important for touch as well as for smell.
Q 06What happens to a genet kitten roughly ten days after it is born in its burrow?
Its eyes open
Its eyes open at about ten days, as do its ears: both are shut at birth. The first solid food follows at around six weeks.
Q 07Genets living near villages are sometimes killed by farmers in retaliation for raiding what?
Poultry
Poultry is the lure for genets that settle near people, though the same animals help farmers by keeping rats and other vermin down.
Q 08Cat-like genets are not cats at all; they share the viverrid family with which musky animals?
Civets
Civets are the genets' best-known kin, and both groups carry musk glands whose secretions leave messages for others of their kind.
Q 09Solitary, stealthy genets rest in trees or thickets and do most of their hunting at which time?
At night
At night is when genets come alive, with activity peaking just after sunset and again shortly before sunrise.
Q 10Most genet species, whatever their spots, have a dark stripe running along which part of the body?
The spine
The spine carries the stripe in most genets, and a threatened common genet raises the hair along it into a crest.
Q 11Which feature helps a genet climb trees with ease and catch hold of its prey?
Retractable claws
Retractable claws, which a genet can draw back partly as a cat does, serve it both for climbing and for catching prey.
Q 12Among genets, which adults take on the work of feeding and rearing a litter of kittens?
The mother alone
The mother alone raises the young, because adult genets are solitary and meet only to court. She may have two litters in a year.
Q 13Which naturalist gave the common genet its first scientific name, Viverra genetta, in the 1700s?
Carl Linnaeus
Carl Linnaeus named the animal in 1758 as a species of Viverra. The separate genus Genetta followed in 1816.
Q 21What shape are the pupils of a genet, set in irises about the same colour as its fur?
Elliptical
Elliptical pupils add to the cat-like look, and a genet can also swivel its large ears through about 80 degrees.
Q 22Which term describes the rare all-black genets on record, like the big cats called black panthers?
Melanistic
Melanistic genets have an excess of dark pigment in their fur, and one such common genet was recorded in southern Portugal in 2019.
Q 23Alongside leopards and servals, which birds are named among African predators of the common genet?
Owls
Owls of the bigger species share the list with caracals and honey badgers, and the red fox and Eurasian goshawk are possible threats as well.
Q 14Legend says which Frankish leader founded a knightly Order of the Genet after the Battle of Tours?
Charles Martel
Charles Martel is said to have handed captured genet pelts to his commanders. The tale first appears in 1620, with no source given for it.
Q 15Common genets were brought to Spain as semi-domestic animals from which region of North Africa?
The Maghreb
The Maghreb supplied the genets that crossed the Mediterranean some 1,000 to 1,500 years ago. Their descendants later spread into France.
Q 16Genets found east of the Rhône in France are believed to have crossed the river by using what?
Bridges
Bridges in built-up areas are the likely route. The Rhône had long been thought a barrier that kept the genet from spreading east.
Q 17The rare aquatic genet may pat the water's surface with which body part to attract its prey?
Its whiskers
Its whiskers may lure prey when tapped on the water, or may simply sense movement below. This genet's sense of smell may be poorly developed.
Q 18The rusty-spotted genet was first described from an animal kept in the menagerie at which landmark?
The Tower of London
The Tower of London housed the genet that John Edward Gray described in 1830, when the fortress still held a collection of exotic animals.
Q 19After reaching mainland Spain, the common genet also spread to which group of Mediterranean islands?
The Balearics
The Balearics took in the genet too, and on Ibiza it is now building work and new roads that break up its habitat.
Q 20Which call do common genets use when friendly, as when females summon their litter?
A hiccup
A hiccup signals friendliness and is also used by courting males, whereas a genet that utters a click is making a threat.
Q 24The Abyssinian genet takes its name from Abyssinia, the old name for which African country?
Ethiopia
Ethiopia is where this little-known genet has been seen as high as 3,750 metres, in the Abune Yosef massif.
Q 25A servaline genet unknown to science until 1995 is found only on which Indian Ocean island?
Zanzibar
Zanzibar has a genet of its own, which came to light when one was killed near the Jozani forest. None was caught on camera until 2003.
Q 26Bourlon's genet of West Africa is named after Philippe Bourlon, who did which job in Paris?
Zookeeper
Zookeeper Philippe Bourlon worked at the Paris Zoological Park, and the genet named in his honour was recognised as a species only in 2003.
Q 27Most genet species hold which conservation status on the IUCN Red List?
Least Concern
Least Concern covers most genets, though a few are so poorly known that they are rated Data Deficient: nobody can tell how they are faring.
Q 28An extinct genet that died out after humans arrived was found only on which Mediterranean island?
Cyprus
Cyprus had a genet of its own until roughly 11,000 years ago. It was about the size of a common genet, with teeth suited to a meatier diet.
Q 29Which small rodent, widespread across Europe, is described as a favourite prey of the common genet?
Wood mouse
Wood mouse tops the menu, but the diet is broad: lizards, birds, eggs, scorpions, centipedes and fruit such as olives are all taken.
Q 30DNA studies show the genets' closest relatives are the two oyans, also known as African what?
Linsangs
Linsangs from Africa are true viverrids and sister to the genets, whereas the look-alike Asiatic kind may be closer kin to the cats.