BANDED MONGOOSE



How to Recognize
Banded mongoose are widespread and quite common to see. They have long legs, a pointed snout, and long claws (they remind me of ferrets). They are gray-brown in color with dark bands on their rumps. Overall, there are thirteen types of mongoose.

Habitat
They can be found in the savannah, woodlands, and grasslands. They especially like termite mounds where they sleep and are known to cultivate land.

Behavior
Diurnal. Banded mongoose are intensely sociable, living in packs of up to forty animals. A typical pack includes three to four breeding females, males, and their offspring. Once an offspring becomes an adult, the male will disperse to another pack.

An upside to a large pack is that they dominate bigger territories by hounding off smaller groups during boundary disputes and thus greater food resources are the result. The downside is that the food resource must be spread to everyone in the group.

Banded mongoose stand on their hind legs or climb termite mounds for better viewpoints. They start their daily routine wandering around their home range foraging and marking rocks, branches, termite mounds, and each other with their scent. Hot spells are spent resting under bushes. All pack members groom and play with each other.

Breeding
Packs may produce four litters a year with many young not surviving. In a den, usually four mongoose are born in the rainy season after a two month gestation. Breeding is synchronized within the pack so the young can be fed and protected together. Any lactating female will suckle a newborn, regardless of parenthood. Adult males will babysit the den while the pack is out foraging. The young will join the foraging after they are five weeks old.

Feeding
They are omnivorous, mostly feeding on small animals of all types. This includes insects, millipedes, spiders, scorpions, rodents, birds and their eggs, plus fruit and berries. Usually led by a senior female, they forage from two to six miles a day snapping up any animal too slow to get out of the way. Difficult or dangerous prey is shaken or thrown against the ground to immobilize it before swallowing.

Enemies
Eagles, cats, dogs, and large monitor lizards are a mongoose’s enemies. When danger threatens, the predator is confronted with a mass of mongoose snapping and spitting. One male has even been observed climbing a tree to force an eagle to drop a fellow comrade.


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Copyright © 2002, Dawn M. Dalton.
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