WHATEVER men and smirking wives may say about size not mattering, the fossa, a diminutive and distant cousin of the lion, clearly isn’t listening.

The creature, dubbed the Pink Panther of Madagascar, has the largest penis bone of all the cat-like species which, scientists believe, ensures that it is the real king of its island jungle.

An adult fossa is about 3½ft long and has a penis of about 7in, a sixth of its body length. If Man had the same ratio he would be 3ft tall and very smug.

Scientists believe that the fossa is so well-endowed because of the demands of the female and the need to outdo male competitors. Lesley Dickie, presenting a study to the Zoological Society of London yesterday, said the large penis bone, the bacula, may be the secret to the fossa’s ability to keep up an acceptable performance during mating sessions that last for up to eight hours.

“It provides extra rigidity,” she said. “It’s nature’s Viagra and in the case of the fossa size might be everything.”

Dr Dickie said that the bacula’s firmness and support is required to stimulate the female sufficiently and persuade her of the male’s virility. If she feels the male has not lived up to expectation she will go on to mate with another fossa and will mate up to five times in a week until she is convinced that she has found the best genes to pass on.

Dr Dickie said: “It’s been suggested in previous papers that the fossa has a large bacula, compared to the body size. It’s not — it’s absolutely enormous. It’s extremely unusual.

“For something like a fossa which has a very large penis it’s likely that the bacula adds the necessary rigidity during the long mating time. It might also be that the size of the bacula is a signal of quality.”

Like the domestic cat, the fossa’s member has spikes that make withdrawal a painful and drawn-out business. Equally wincingly, the bacula can easily break.

Baculas are found in five orders of mammals — primates, Carnivora, Insectivora, Rodentia and chiroptera (bats) — and are thought to have been an early evolutionary development that has been discarded by many animals, including Man. Among the creatures that still have them are wolves, genets, bush babies, cats, badgers and stoats. A lion’s is the same length as the fossa’s.

The fossa, which weighs about 15lb (6.8kg), is the largest predator on Madagascar. Its main prey is the lemur but it will also catch hedgehogs, lizards and frogs. Villagers on the island are fearful of it.

Like most animals on Madagascar the fossa is suffering from habitat loss.

It is endangered and only 2,500 are left in the wild but the island’s Government promised recently to help to protect the fossa by ensuring that a tenth of Madagascar has protected status by 2008.

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