Melogale personata

Geographic Range

The range of the Melogale personata includes Nepal, north-eastern India, Myanmar (formally Burma), southern most provinces of China, Vietnam, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia (Jackson 2001). A subspecies of M. personata , Melogale personata orientalis , is found on the Indonesian island of Java (Colijn 2000).

• Biogeographic Regions
• oriental oriental
  • native native

Habitat

The Burmese ferret badger is a terrestrial species that can live in forests, savannas, or grasslands (Nowak & Paradiso 1983).

• Habitat Regions
• terrestrial terrestrial

• Terrestrial Biomes
• forest forest

Physical Description

Burmese ferret badgers are small weighing between 1 and 3 kg at maturity. Melogale personata have an elongated body that can reach a head and body length ranging from 330 mm to 430 mm long. They have bushy tails between 150 mm to 230 mm long. Their legs resemble a typical badger because they are short with broad paws and large claws used in digging. Melogale personata , like all ferret badgers, have partially webbed toes and ridges on the pads of their feet. These characteristics are believed to be adaptations for climbing. Melogale personata have grayish to brownish fur with a lighter fur on their underside. They have white heads with black markings including a black band across their muzzle and another across the forehead between their ears. Burmese ferret badgers have thinner black stripes on their face than the Chinese ferret badger. The white dorsal stripe of the Burmese ferret badger runs from its head to the base of the tail. This distinguishes it from the Chinese ferret badger because in the Chinese species the dorsal stripe does not reach the base of the tail (Jackson 2001).

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

Reproduction

Researchers in Thailand reproted the average litter size of M. personata is 3 cubs. Burmese ferret badgers are born in burrows, just before the rainy season. They are fed in the burrow for two to three weeks by their mother. Beyond this virtually nothing is known about the reproductive cycle and life history of M. personata (Pei & Wang 1995).

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

Lifespan/Longevity

Burmese ferret badgers have lived ten years in captivity. However, there are no data on the lifespan of Burmese ferret badgers in the wild (Jackson 2001).

Behavior

Burmese ferret badgers are primarily nocturnal. However, they have limited day activity usually focused around dawn and dusk and lasting no more than a few hours (Jackson 2001). Melogale personata spend most of the day sleeping in a burrow or natural shelter. They do not dig their own holes to create burrows, instead they use preexisting burrows. Information is limited regarding ferret badgers' social organizations, home ranges and territories. One study showed male ferret badgers have home ranges that are large enough to encompass the ranges of several females, approximately 4 to 9 hectares. Researchers have suggested that members of the genus Melogale are solitary except during the breeding season, but more research is needed to further understand the social organization and reproductive behavior (Jackson 2001).

• Key Behaviors
• terricolous
• nocturnal nocturnal
• motile motile
• solitary solitary

Communication and Perception

• Perception Channels
• tactile tactile
• chemical chemical

Food Habits

The Burmese ferret badger forages primarily on the ground, but they do spend some time in trees hunting insects and snails. Melogale personata has larger teeth than the other Melogale species. The massive teeth of M. personata are thought to be an adaptation for crushing hard shelled insects and mollusks (primarily snails). The Burmese ferret badger also eats cockroaches, grasshoppers, and earthworms. They also prey upon small mammals, including young rats, frogs, toads, small lizards, carrion, small birds, bird eggs, plant matter, and fruit (Jackson 2001).

• Primary Diet
• omnivore omnivore

• Animal Foods
• mammals
• amphibians
• reptiles
• eggs
• carrion carrion
• insects
• terrestrial non-insect arthropods
• mollusks
• terrestrial worms

• Plant Foods
• leaves
• fruit

Economic Importance for Humans: Positive

Lepcha and Bhotia peoples in northeast India keep M. personata in their homes to control cockroaches and other insect and rodent pests. M. personata is hunted and trapped in southeast Asia. Like all ferret badgers, the Burmese ferret badger is used as a source of food, fur, and medicines by the local people (Jackson 2001).

• Positive Impacts
• food food
• source of medicine or drug source of medicine or drug
• controls pest population

Economic Importance for Humans: Negative

Badgers including M. personata are suspected to be able to transmit tuberculosis (TB) to cattle; however, research has not been able to determine how this may take place (Hutchinson 2000).

Conservation Status

Although M. personata is not currently listed as threatened or endangered, habitat destruction and degradation due to high rates of deforestation in its range could be a significant threat to its survival and success. Melogale personata orientalis , a subspecies of M. personata , is described as low risk - near threatened, meaning they are close to being considered vulnerable and may need future conservation attention (Colijn 2000).

Other Comments

Melogale personata was first described in 1831 by Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire (Mammal Species of the World, 1993).

Additional Links

Encyclopedia of Life

Contributors

Rosie Clarke (author), University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, Kate Teeter (editor), University of Michigan-Ann Arbor.

References

Colijn, E. January 2000. "IUCN MAMMAL RED LIST INDONESIA" (On-line). Accessed November 19, 2001 at http://users.bart.nl/~edcolijn/redlistm.html .

Hutchinson, 2000. "Badger" (On-line). Accessed November 20, 2001 at http://ebooks.whsmithonline.co.uk/htmldata/ency.asp?mainpage=HTTP://EBOOKS.WHSMITHONLINE.CO.UK/ENCYCLOPEDIA/23/M0007423.HTM .

Jackson, S. October 10, 2001. "Badger Pages: The Ferret Badgers" (On-line). Accessed November 10, 2001 at http://www.badgers.org.uk .

Nowak, R., J. Paradiso. 1983. Walker's Mammals of the World . Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.

Pei, K., Y. Wang. 1995. Some Observations on the Reproduction of the Taiwan Ferret Badger (*Melogale moschata subaurantiaca*) in Southern Taiwan. Zoological Studies , 33: 34.

1993. "Mammal Species Of The World (MSW) Scientific Names" (On-line). Accessed November 19, 2001 at http://www.nmnh.si.edu/cgi-bin/wdb/msw/names/query/12221 .