Herpestes edwardsi

Geographic Range

Indian gray mongooses ( Herpestes edwardsii ) occupy coastal area from Arabia to Nepal and downward through Pakistan, India, and Ceylon.

They were introduced to the West Indies, Hawaii, Jamaica, Cuba and Puerto Rico to control poisonous snakes and rats.

• Biogeographic Regions
• palearctic palearctic
  • native native
• oriental oriental
  • native native
• neotropical neotropical
  • introduced introduced
• oceanic islands oceanic islands
  • introduced introduced
• mediterranean sea
  • introduced introduced

Habitat

Indian gray mongooses have been observed in areas of thickets, in cultivated fields or in broken, bushy vegetation.

They also occupied open areas, grasslands, and scrub. They sleep in holes in the ground or hollow trees to escape the mid-day sun.

• Habitat Regions
• temperate temperate
• tropical tropical
• terrestrial terrestrial

• Terrestrial Biomes
• savanna or grassland savanna or grassland

• Other Habitat Features
• agricultural agricultural

Physical Description

Herpestids have long bodies, short legs and highly developed anal scent glands. Their coats are thick and coarse in texture. Herpestes edwardsii is identified by its silver-grey, salt-and-pepper speckled fur and white-tipped tail.

The head and body are 38 to 46 centimeters long, and the tail is 35 centimeters long. They have 40 teeth. The weight of members of this genus ranges from 0.5 to 4 kg.

Herpestes edwardsii has five toes on fore and hind feet. The hind foot is naked to the heel, but the forefoot has hair to its sharp, curved claws.

• Other Physical Features
• endothermic endothermic
• homoiothermic
• bilateral symmetry bilateral symmetry

• Sexual Dimorphism
• male larger

Reproduction

Shetty et al. (1995) observed mating behavior of Indian gray mongooses in captivity. Social hierarchy was evident, and the dominant male and female were observed and reported to mount more often than subordinate animals. There was no significant change in mounting with females in estrus.

Herpestes edwardsii reproduces rapidly, with females giving birth to two or three litters per year. Litters typically contain from 2 to 4 young. The gestation period is 60 to 65 days with parturition occurring in May or June and October to December. Females have four to six mammae.

• Key Reproductive Features
• iteroparous iteroparous
• year-round breeding year-round breeding
• gonochoric/gonochoristic/dioecious (sexes separate)
• sexual sexual
• fertilization fertilization
• viviparous viviparous

There was no information available on parental care in Indian gray mongooses. However, as is the case with all mammals, the female nurses her young. Carnivores are typically born altricial, developing in a nest or den of some type. It is reasonable to assume this is true of H. edwardsii .

• Parental Investment
• no parental involvement
• altricial altricial
• pre-fertilization
  • protecting
    • female
• pre-hatching/birth
  • provisioning
    • female
  • protecting
    • female
• pre-weaning/fledging
  • provisioning
    • female
  • protecting
    • female
• pre-independence
  • protecting
    • female

Lifespan/Longevity

The longest a mongoose has been known to live is 12.5 years. They generally live about seven years. The greatest threat to a mongoose's survival is the use of toxic agro-chemicals in farming areas. The government has restricted use around protected areas.

Behavior

Mongooses are terrestrial, diurnal solitary hunters that search during the day and into late evening. They can be seen any time of the day, but Indian gray mongooses is especially active in the early morning and early evening in search of reptiles. They use a quick trot, moving constantly, scanning the area for food. They are rarely seen climbing trees.

This species is known for its behavior in combating snakes. In a fight against a snake, a mongoose utilizes special techniques and adaptations. At first the aggressive mongoose displays its teeth. The snake in turn opens its mouth wide, spreads its hood, and rears back. The cobra strikes time and time again, but the mongoose is able to jump out of reach, weaving and rocking like a boxer. After an hour or so of striking, the snake tires, and the mongoose leaps and attempts to take its first bite. The snake can usually endure the first bite, but the mongoose persists until it is able to hold and crack the cobra's skull. The cobra usually loses because it is unable to strike and retract fast enough to inject its venom. The mongoose would be at a disadvantage against a constrictor or a pitviper.

Indian gray mongooses give no respect to the scorpion or its sting. A mongoose will simply pick the scorpion up and throw it repeatedly between its back legs onto a hard surface until it is broken open. Indian gray mongooses use this technique also to break open large eggs. Most mongooses use this technique for breaking open average sized eggs. Because of their larger body, Indian gray mongooses can hold an average sized egg in their paws and bite open the small end of it.

Indian gray mongooses have an unusually broad transverse process on its lumbar vertebrae and a wide sacrum. The modified backbone is thought to help defend the mongoose when it tucks into a ball like a hedgehog. The related Herpestes icheneumon does not use this defense technique and does not have special lumbar vertebrae.

• Key Behaviors
• terricolous
• fossorial fossorial
• diurnal diurnal
• motile motile
• sedentary sedentary
• territorial territorial
• social social
• dominance hierarchies dominance hierarchies

Home Range

The home range size for this species has not been reported.

Communication and Perception

Mongooses have an anal sac used in communication. Males spray only during the mating season. Mongooses display an adapted behavior to deposit the spray at nose height on vertical objects. Indian gray mongooses raise one leg, spraying the urine down the object to be marked. In addition, they may spray high on the object by rearing up on the forepaws into a handstand position and ejecting the secretions. The secretions of the scent glands are potent and can radiate a large distance, like that of the skunk Mephitis mephitis .

• Communication Channels
• visual visual
• tactile tactile
• chemical chemical

• Other Communication Modes
• scent marks scent marks

• Perception Channels
• visual visual
• tactile tactile
• acoustic acoustic
• chemical chemical

Food Habits

Indian gray mongooses are opportunistic hunters feeding mainly on mice, rats, lizards, snakes, and beetles. Ground birds, their eggs, and parts of plants: fruits, berries, and roots have become a part of their diet. In India, they have been seen chasing a hare and running away with a cattle egret. In India, the Indian gray mongoose feeds on the eggs and chicks of the red jungle fowl, the peafowl, and the partridges. They have been known to prey in grasslands in search of snakes and small mammals, on beaches in Hawaii, and wading in the water to find food under stones.

They have also been known to prey on grasshoppers, scorpions, centipedes, frogs, crabs, and fish. The mongoose has an elongated skull with specialized teeth for hunting. The incisors form a cutting edge at the front of the mouth, the canines point and protrude allowing it to clamp onto a snake's head, and the molars have pointed cusps for crushing insects.

• Primary Diet
• omnivore omnivore

• Animal Foods
• birds
• mammals
• amphibians
• reptiles
• fish
• eggs
• insects
• terrestrial non-insect arthropods
• aquatic crustaceans

• Plant Foods
• roots and tubers
• seeds, grains, and nuts
• fruit

Predation

Between hunts, Indian gray mongooses retreat to their burrow, crevices in rocks, or nearby rivers to escape the heat and obtain protection from their largest predator, leopards ( Panthera pardus ).

• Anti-predator Adaptations
• cryptic cryptic

Ecosystem Roles

In their natural environment, Indian grey mongooses prey on ground birds, reptiles, small mammals, and insects. They are therefore likely to affect populations of these animals. Their ability to prey on snakes has been well noted, and they have been introduced to many areas for that purpose.

Economic Importance for Humans: Positive

As people found out that mongooses were rat and snake killers, they were domesticated to control rats, mice and snakes in and around houses.

• Positive Impacts
• pet trade pet trade
• research and education
• controls pest population

Economic Importance for Humans: Negative

They are uncontrollable and are considered pests outside their natural environment; they are not welcome in many countries. This species was introduced to the West Indies and islands around the United States to get rid of poisonous snakes and rats. They became a pest when they fed on birds and small mammals instead of unwanted animals. Because of the potential pest problem, importation of some species is forbidden in the United States by federal statute.

Indian gray mongooses have been known to carry Toxoplasma gondii , a worldwide zoonotic obligate intracellular protozoan that exists as tachyzoites, tissue cysts, and oocysts. It is the most common infectious protozoan parasite transmitted from non-humans to humans.

• Negative Impacts
• injures humans
  • carries human disease
• household pest

Conservation Status

According to Santiapillai (2000), who studied the status of three species of herpestids in Ruhuna National Park, Sri Lanka, Indian gray mongooses have the lowest density of 0.2 per sq. km while the other two species had densities of 2.6 and 0.7. Similar studies in Wilpattu National Park in northwest Sri Lanka found that Herpestes fuscus , not H. edwardsii was the least common in that park. Population studies have been done to check the necessity of conservation and see what can be done to sustain species. Because of the results of studies, the three species of mongoose ( Herpestes smithii , H. edwardsii , and Herpestes vitticollis ) are protected in Sri Lanka. Their greatest threat is human use of toxic agro-chemicals in farming areas. The government has restricted use around protected areas.

Other Comments

In all Asian Herpestes species, males have one less chromosome than females: 2n=35 in males and 2n=36 in females. Herpestes is considered by some to be the least modified from the ancestral miacid-type carnivore from which viverrids and herpestids are derived.

Additional Links

Encyclopedia of Life

Contributors

Nancy Shefferly (editor), Animal Diversity Web.

Ellen Graham (author), University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, Chris Yahnke (editor), University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point.

References

Bridges, W. 1948. Wild Animals of the World . Garden City, NY: Garden City Books.

Carrington, R., The editors of Life. 1963. The Mammals . New York, NY: Time Incorporated.

Dakhil, M., T. Morsy. 1996. Natural toxoplasma infection sought in the Indian grey mongoose (H. edwardsii, Greffroy, 1818) trapped in the eastern region, Saudi Arabia. Journal of the Egyptian Society of Parasitology , 26/3: 645-652.

Ewer, R. F. 1973. The Carnivores . Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.

Postanowicz, R. 2002. "Indian Grey Moongoose" (On-line). Lioncrusher's Domain. Accessed December 05, 2002 at http://www.lioncrusher.com/animal.asp?animal=140 .

Santiapillai, C., M. De Silva, S. Dissanayake. 2000. The status of mongooses (family: Herpestidae) in Ruhuna National Park, Sri Lanka. The Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society , 97: 208-214.

Shetty, J., G. Shetty, S. Kanakaraj. 1995. Mating behavior of the Indian grey mongoose Herpestes edwardsii edwardsii Geoffroy. The Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society , 92: 26-29.

Walker, E. 1975. Mammals of the World; 3rd Edition vol. 3 . Baltimore, Maryland: Hopkins University Press.

Whitfield, P. 1978. The Hunters . New York, NY: Simon and Schuster.

1976. Mongoose. Pp. 604 in World Book Encyclopedia , Vol. 13. Chicago, IL: Field Enterprise Educational Corporation.

2000. "Rajaji National Park" (On-line image). Animals and Vegetation: Mammals. Accessed 12/05/02 at http://www.rajajinationalpark.com/mammals/ .