Colours of Wildlife: Falanouc
Created | Updated May 17, 2015
Falanouc
Willem is a wildlife artist based in South Africa. He says "My aim is simply to express the beauty and wonder that is in Nature, and to heighten people's appreciation of plants, animals and the wilderness. Not everything I paint is African! Though I've never been there, I'm also fascinated by Asia and I've done paintings of Asian rhinos and birds as well. I may in future do some of European, Australian and American species too. I'm fascinated by wild things from all over the world! I mainly paint in watercolours. . . but actually many media including 'digital' paintings with the computer!"
Having told you about the Giant Jumping Rat, I decided to stay with Madagascar and bring you another enigmatic mammal from that island, the Falanouc, Eupleres goudotii. It is a very rare species, and I’ve only seen a few depictions of it and a handful of not-very-good photos, including of a poorly stuffed specimen. Therefore, I can’t vouch for how realistic my painting is, but I did my best!
An Insect-Eating Carnivore
The Falanouc belongs to the Carnivore order, but is itself not very carnivorous. It has a small head with a long and remarkably slender muzzle. Its jaws are weak, and it has pointy cheek teeth like insectivores rather than the shearing teeth of other carnivores. This happens to be because in fact it does indeed eat mostly invertebrates! It hunts in the forests, probably being mostly nocturnal. It has long claws on its feet, which it uses to dig in the humus and leaf litter. It is partial to earthworms and beetle grubs, also eating slugs and snails. On occasion it might catch and eat small vertebrates like rodents. Because of its relatively weak jaws and teeth, if it is threatened, it will fight back not by biting, but my lashing out with its claws.
A Fat Tail
Another peculiarity of the falanouc is its tail. It looks very thick, and this is not only due to the dense bushy fur that covers it. The falanouc actually stores fat in its tail! Madagascar has a somewhat seasonal climate. It is mostly in the tropics, in the southern hemisphere, and although there's not much difference in temperature, the winter is drier than the summer. Falanoucs eat as much as they can during the late summer, storing up fat in preparation for the winter. Thus, in the months of June and July, when food is least available, the fat stores in the tail help them to keep going.
Apart from that, we don't know much about these critters. They are not very social, preferring to patrol the forest alone or in pairs. Baby falanoucs are born in burrows, just one at a time. They are born open-eyed and mobile, following their mothers around at only two days old. They wean quickly, but grow slowly. An adult falanouc can reach a total length of 75 cm/30" and a bodyweight of 4.5 kg/10 lbs. Falanoucs fall into two groups, sometimes distinguished as separate species – the Eastern Falanouc and the Western. They look very similar. Both species are rare and threatened, mostly due to habitat destruction, as well as competition and predation by the introduced cats, dogs and the small Indian civet that was for some reason brought to the island.
Falanouc Relatives
The Falanouc is a member of the Eupleridae, a family named for it which includes all the native carnivores of Madagascar. I'm using the word 'carnivore' here in its taxonomic sense, rather than dietary. The carnivore order is the one which includes the familiar carnivores like bears, dogs and cats. The Madagascan carnivores are related to mongooses, genets and civets. They are descended from civet-like animals which managed to drift from the African continent (perhaps on trees uprooted in a flood) to the island of Madagascar, about 20-30 million years ago. On Madagascar, finding no competing species, these flourished and diversified. The most familiar Madagascan carnivore is the Fossa, Cryptoprocta ferox. It is surprisingly cat-like, except for walking on the soles of its feet like a bear. Not to be confused with the Fossa is the Fanaloka, which just to be funny has the scientific name Fossa fossana. These are both quite closely related to the Falanouc (also sometimes called Fanalouc just to make it confusable with the Fanaloka). Then there are the Madagascan 'mongooses' which despite the name are not members of the actual mongoose family, the Herpestidae. They're still in the Eupleridae. They are elegant little critters, many with bold bands or stripes decorating their bodies. Very recently, a new species was discovered and named for the conservationist Gerald Durrell. This is quite a common situation in Madagascar, where many new species are still becoming recognized even today! Most of this is due to genetic studies disclosing much greater diversity than external appearances would suggest. Sadly, most of the unique wildlife of Madagascar is highly threatened.
