Nature Animals Of India - The Brown Mongoose

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Chaundal

Indian Mongoose

2009/09/06 0352.338 GMT-4 By Jerod Lutz



Geographic Range

The small Indian mongoose was originally found across southeast Asia from Pakistan to the south coast of China, and throughout the Malay Peninsula and Java (Corbet and Hill 1992). However, this species has been widely introduced, including to the West Indies, South America, Japan, Europe and several Pacific islands, to help control rodent and snake populations (Nellis and Everard 1983, Tyrtkovic and Krystufek 1990, Ogura et al. 1998). (Corbet and Hill, 1992; Nellis and Everard, 1983; Ogura, Sakashita, and Kawashima, 1998; Tyrtkovic and Krysufek, 1990)


Habitat

In the Caribbean, small Indian mongooses are found only in dry forest and scrubland (Nellis and Everard 1983). On Pacific islands, they are found both in these dry habitats and also in rainforest (Tomich 1979). No study has been done to determine their habitat in the natural range. (Nellis and Everard, 1983; Tomich, 1979)


The Javan mongoose shares the typical traits of mongooses but is small. They have a pointed head, a long tail, and thick hair except on their lower legs (Ewer 1977). Their fur coat can stand on end, which make the animal appear twice as large when it combats such enemies as poisonous reptiles.
Males average 650 g in weight and females 430 g. (Ewer, 1977)

Reproduction

Breeding season
Breeding occurs during the summer months of the year.


Number of offspring
1 to 5; avg. 2


Gestation period
49 days (average)


The males of the species become sexually mature in as little as four months following birth. Once the male's testes become fully mature, they continue to contain spermatozoa for the rest of the life of the individual. In the Northern Hemisphere, breeding females are found from the end of February until early September (Pearson & Baldwin 1953, Nellis and Everard 1983), and in the Southern Hemisphere from August through February (Gorman 1976).

The duration of pregnancy is 49 days. A litter typically consists of two young, but as many as five have been recorded (Nellis and Everard 1983). (Gorman, 1976; Nellis and Everard, 1983; Pearson and Baldwin, 1953)

Behavior

Small Indian mongooses are completely diurnal animals. In captivity, adults take part in many types of play and games of curiosity (Nellis and Everard). Mutual grooming has been observed between captive individuals of either sex, but only between mother and offspring in wild individuals (Nellis and Everard 1983).

Though this is usually described as a solitary species, males have been found to form social groups and even to share burrows, at least during the breeding season (Hays, in review). Behavior that promotes either body warming or cooling has been described by Baldwin. Warming is done in the early hours by exposing as much as possible of the ventral surface to the sun. In hot sunlight they usually cease to be active before panting. When it becomes too hot they seek out the shade and a cool surface on which to lie on their stomachs. If a cool surface is not available, they sometimes scratch away the warm surface soil before lying down (Baldwin et al. 1952). (Baldwin, Schwartz, and Schwartz, 1952; Nellis and Everard, 1983)



Food Habits

Several large field studies have revealed the small Indian mongoose to be primarily an insectivore, though it also feeds opportunistically on small vertebrates (studies summarized in Cavallini and Serafini 1995). An early field study of the amount and type of food eaten by a mongoose was done on the small Indian mongoose on the island of Trinidad (Williams 1918). In this study, the nature of their foodstuffs depended largely on the opportunities available. An examination of the stomachs of 180 individuals revealed insects, spiders, snails, slugs, frogs, lizards, snakes, birds, eggs of birds and reptiles, all kinds of rodents, crabs, fish and fruits (Williams 1918). Members of this species have also been known to catch mammals many times their size, up to the size of hares and even the young of white-tailed deer (Seaman & Randall 1962). (Cavallini and Nel, 1995; Seaman and Randall, 1962; Williams, 1918)

Small Indian mongooses, like many other mongoose species, are famous for their killing techniques, particular when it comes to venomous snakes such as fer-de-lance and habu pit vipers, which they kill in captivity. Vertebrate prey is usually killed with a bite to the back of the head (Ewer 1977). (Ewer, 1977)

Primary Diet:
carnivore (eats terrestrial vertebrates, insectivore ).

Animal Foods:
birds; mammals; amphibians; reptiles; eggs; carrion ; insects; terrestrial non-insect arthropods; mollusks; terrestrial worms; aquatic crustaceans.

Plant Foods:
seeds, grains, and nuts; fruit.


Economic Importance for Humans: Negative

No study has checked whether small Indian mongooses in their native range affect humans. Populations in many areas of introduction carry rabies, and immense programs are occasionally needed to control these populations (Nellis and Everard 1983). Introduced populations have also driven at least one bird species extinct, and have extirpated dozens of vertebrates from islands around the world, including many endangered species (Hays and Conant, in review). (Nellis and Everard, 1983)


Economic Importance for Humans: Positive

This mongoose was introduced into many nations of the West Indies, beginning in the 1870s, for the purpose of controlling rats in sugar cane plantations. In 1883 they were imported to the Hawaiian Islands for the same reason. Both cases proved to be among the most disastrous attempts ever made at biological control. In both instances the mongoose not only did tremendous damage on its own account (extirpating many native species), but at best only partially reduced the populations of rats (Hinton & Dunn 1967). (Hinton and Dunn, 1967)


Conservation Status

No special status.

Its conservation is not an issue; in fact in the West Indies and Hawaiian islands control measures are necessary and expensive.


For More Information

Find Herpestes javanicus information at

• Encyclopedia of Life

Contributors

Jerod Lutz (author), University of Michigan.
Phil Myers (editor), Museum of Zoology, University of Michigan.

References


Hays, W., S. Conant. Impact of the small Indian mongoose (*Herpestes javanicus*) (Carnivora: Herpestidae) on native vertebrate populations in areas of introduction. Pacific Science, ~in review~.

Hays, W., S. Conant. Male social activity in the small Indian mongoose, *Herpestes javanicus*. Acta Theriologica, ~in review~.

Baldwin, P., C. Schwartz, E. Schwartz. 1952. Life hitory and economic status of the mongoose in Hawaii. Journal Mammal, 33: 335-356.

Cavallini, P., J. Nel. 1995. Comparative behavior and ecology of two sympatric mongoose species (Cynictis penicillata and Galerella pulverulenta). South African Journal of Zoology, 30: 46-49.

Corbet, G., J. Hill. 1992. The Mammals of the Indomalayan Region. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Ewer, R. 1977. The Carnivores. New York: Cornell University Press.

Gorman, M. 1976. Seasonal changes in the reproductive pattern of feral Herpestes auropunctatus in the Fijian Islands. Journal of Zoology, 178: 237-246.

Hinton, H., A. Dunn. 1967. Mongooses: Their Natural History & Behavior. London: Oliver & Boyd Ltd.

Nellis, D., C. Everard. 1983. The biology of the mongoose in the Caribbean. Studies of the fauna of Curacae and other Caribbean islands, 195: 1-162.

Ogura, G., M. Sakashita, Y. Kawashima. 1998. External morphology and classification of mongoose on Okinawa island. Honyurui Kagaku, 38: 259-270.

Pearson, O., P. Baldwin. 1953. Reproduction and age structure of a mongoose population in Hawaii. Journal Mammal, 34: 436-447.

Schrieber, A., R. Wirth, M. Riffel, H. Van Rompaey. 1989. An action plan for the conservation of mustelids and viverrids. Weasels, Civets, Mongooses and their Relatives, 2: 43-46.

Seaman, G., J. Randall. 1962. The mongoose as a predator in the Virgin Islands. Journal Mammal, 43: 544-546.

Tomich, P. 1979. Studies of leptospirosis in natural host populations. 1 Small mammals of Waipio valley, island of Hawaii. Pacific Science, 33: 257-279.

Tyrtkovic, N., B. Krysufek. 1990. Small Indian mongoose, Herpestes auropunctatus (Hodgson 1936) on the Adriatic Islands of Yugoslavia. Bonner Zoologische Beitrage, 41: 3-8.

Williams, C. 1918. The food habits of the mongoose in Trinidad. Bulletin of Dept. of Agriculture of Trinidad & Tobago, 17: 167-186.

20/09/06 0353.744 GMT-4

To cite this page: Lutz, J. 2003. "Herpestes javanicus" (On-line), Animal Diversity Web. Accessed September 10, 2009 at ADW: Herpestes javanicus: Information.

 

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'Cooperative begging' helps mongoose pups score food

• 17:00 05 April 2007 by Roxanne Khamsi

Mongoose pups seem to know the value of teamwork when it comes to nagging their parents for a treat.



A study of the animals in Uganda suggests they use "cooperative begging" to get more food from their elders, creating a deafening chorus of chirps in the process. When one mongoose pup stops begging, all of the youngsters in the group receive less food as a result.


Matt Bell at the University of Cambridge in the UK spent three years in Uganda observing the behaviour of the banded mongoose, Mungos mungo. They are small, ferret-like carnivores with black bands of colour marking the fur on their backs. They live in groups of roughly 50 individuals, and females generally give birth at the same time.


When mongoose pups first leave the den, each one searches out and finds an elder in the group - often a male - and follows this adult continually for the next two months. The pups beg for food from their chaperones by making a chirping sound and receive food, such as beetles, as a result. Each dedicated chaperone feeds only its associated pup, so there is no competition among the youngsters for food.
Sleep easy

Bell was curious to know how the begging of a single pup might influence the behaviour of the others in the same brood. So he conducted some experimental interventions. If there were seven pups in a mongoose group, for example, he would place two of the pups in a darkened cage for half a day.


The two pups that were removed from the group would sleep soundly in the cage. But the other pups had to beg even louder to get food from their associated chaperones.
In another part of the study, Bell removed two chaperones instead of two pups. The pups whose chaperones had gone missing fell silent because they had no chaperone to beg. But the other pups again turned up the volume of their own begging calls, by about 15%.


Bell says the results of the study suggest that mongoose pups use cooperative begging to get food. He explains that the chirping from other pups reduces the effort a given youngster has to put into its own begging.



The "deafening sound" made when all of the pups beg at once raises the levels of stress hormone in the chaperones, making them more annoyed with the noise and more likely to pass over a beetle.


Journal reference: Current Biology (DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2007.03.015)

 

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The Mongoose and the Brahmin’s Wife

This is another good story from the collection of Panchatantra. Once upon a time, there lived a Brahman by the name of Deva Sharma with his wife. His wife delivered a son and they were happy to have their first child. The Brahmin wanted to have a pet animal to protect the child which would also be a companion to the child. The Brahmin kept his proposal before the Brahmani. She found the proposal acceptable and the Brahmin went to bring a pet.

Deva Sharma went round the village and after much toil, got a mongoose as an escort to his child. Brahmani didn’t like the idea to keep a mongoose for her child. But as the pet was already brought, so she accepted it. Now, both of them started loving the mongoose as their own child. Yet, the Brahmani never left her son alone because she did not trust the mongoose, fearing that it could harm her son.

One day, the farmer and his wife had to go out of the house leaving the child at home. The farmer confirmed that the mongoose would take care of the child while they would be away. So, they left the mongoose and the child at home and went out. Soon after they left, a cobra entered the home. Finding danger to the son of the Brahmin, the mongoose attacked the cobra. They had a ****** combat and the mongoose succeeded in killing the cobra.

After this, mongoose heard the footfalls of Brahmin’s wife and went at the door to greet her. Brahmani was trembled to see the blood stained mouth of the mongoose. She inferred that the mongoose had killed the child. Without a second thought, she threw a heavy box on mongoose and the mongoose died at the spot. Brahmani quickly entered the house to see her child and to her great surprise, she found her child sleeping quietly in the cradle.

As soon as, she saw a snake bitten into pieces lying near the cradle, she realized that the mongoose had saved her child. The Brahmani was struck by grief that she had killed the mongoose that was like a sibling to her son. She cried loud at her hasty action.

Moral: Don’t act in haste. Think and Act.

The Mongoose and the Brahmin’s Wife Tale - Panchatantra Story the Loyal Mongoose, The Mongoose and the Baby in the Cradle