Video Captures Catlike Creature Riding Rare Rhino
New camera-trap footage shows a genet on the back of a black rhinoceros in South Africa. An expert weighs in on the bizarre interaction.
The saga of animals riding on other animals continues.
This time, it’s a genet—a relative of a mongoose—atop a rare black rhinoceros as it moves through the South African bush.
Volunteers with Wildlife ACT and Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife, organizations promoting species conservation in Africa, captured the highly unusual nighttime interaction with a camera trap and published the footage on YouTube last week. (Also see "Weasel Rides Woodpecker in Viral Photo—But Is It Real?")
This isn’t the first time we've seen a hitchhiking-genet: In 2014, the same team photographed the spotted carnivore riding on a white rhino and two Cape buffaloes. The unheard-of relationship spawned "Genet Jackson," the rhino-wrangling genet with its own Twitter account.
Craig Sholley, wildlife biologist
