Animal Diversity Web

Ge­o­graphic Range

Gi­ant-striped mon­gooses (Ga­li­dic­tis gran­di­dieri) are found in the spiny desert re­gion of south­west­ern Mada­gas­car, also known as the Di­dlerea-Eu­phor­bia thicket. At one time they were found in the Ita­m­polo area and were thought to exist in the Ma­hafaly Plateau re­gion also. Most re­cently, they were found in the Tsi­manam­pet­sotsa Re­serve. The total area of oc­cu­pa­tion by this species is doc­u­mented at 43,200 ha. (Good­man, 1996; "2002 IUCN Red List of Threat­ened Species", 2002; Wozen­craft, 1986)

• Biogeographic Regions
• ethiopian
  • native

• Other Geographic Terms
• island endemic

Habi­tat

Gi­ant-striped mon­gooses are found in the spiny desert re­gion of south­west­ern Mada­gas­car, clas­si­fied as sub­trop­i­cal or trop­i­cal dry, which re­ceives only 10 to 40 cm of rain per year. Veg­e­ta­tion of the spiny desert in­cludes species of Eu­phor­bia and Pachy­podium. Much of the veg­e­ta­tion has sharp spines and/or thorns, mak­ing it very in­hos­pitable to hu­mans and dif­fi­cult for re­searchers to nav­i­gate. The Tsi­manam­pet­sotsa Re­serve is at an el­e­va­tion of 38 to 114 m and ex­pe­ri­ences tem­per­a­ture­sof up to 47 de­grees C. ("2002 IUCN Red List of Threat­ened Species", 2002; Parks, 1996-2001; Wozen­craft, 1986; Wozen­craft, 1990)

• Habitat Regions
• tropical
• terrestrial

• Terrestrial Biomes
• desert or dune

• Range elevation

  38 to 114 m

  124.67 to 374.02 ft

Phys­i­cal De­scrip­tion

Gi­ant-striped mon­gooses are much larger than other Mala­gasy mon­gooses. Ga­li­dic­tis gran­di­dieri is ap­prox­i­mately 32 to 40 cm in length and weighs about 499 to 589 g. The tail is 28 to 30 cm long. (Nowak, 1995; Postanaw­icz, 1997-2002; Wozen­craft, 1986)

The species is known for its light brown, creamy col­ored hair. In­di­vid­u­als are marked with eight dark stripes run­ning lon­gi­tu­di­nally down the back. The stripes are nar­rower than the spaces in be­tween the stripes. They orig­i­nate at the base of the ears and fol­low the body to the base of the tail. This species of mon­goose also has longer legs and larger feet than any of the other Mala­gasy mon­gooses. There is cur­rently no pub­lished in­for­ma­tion that in­di­cates that giant striped mon­gooses are sex­u­ally di­mor­phic. Males and fe­males look the same, but a scent pouch is pre­sent in the fe­males. Ju­ve­niles ap­pear to look much the same as adults as well, ex­cept for the dif­fer­ence in size. (Nowak, 1995; Postanaw­icz, 1997-2002; Wozen­craft, 1986)

The skull of G. gran­di­dieri is larger than that of other mon­gooses, and has a well-de­vel­oped sagit­tal crest and a short supra­or­bital process. The term ro­bust is often used to de­scribe the skull of this species. (Nowak, 1995)

The den­tal for­mula for G. gran­di­dieri is 3/3, 1/1, 3-4/3, 2/2 = 36-38. Ga­li­dic­tis gran­di­dieri dif­fers from its close rel­a­tive Ga­li­dic­tis fas­ci­ata in that G. gran­di­dieri has a wider ros­trum at the ca­nines, a longer mandible, and longer pre­mo­lars. The ca­nines of mon­gooses closely oc­clude with one an­other and are good for shear­ing. The con­i­cal crush­ing teeth of this species are much like the teeth of crab-eat­ing mon­gooses of India. (Nowak, 1995; Postanaw­icz, 1997-2002; Wozen­craft, 1986)

• Other Physical Features
• endothermic
• homoiothermic
• bilateral symmetry

• Sexual Dimorphism
• sexes alike

• Range mass

  499 to 589 g

  17.59 to 20.76 oz

• Range length

  32 to 40 cm

  12.60 to 15.75 in

Re­pro­duc­tion

Giant striped mon­gooses live in pairs and breed year round. The breed­ing sys­tem is ap­par­ently monog­a­mous, al­though re­pro­duc­tion in this species has not yet been stud­ied in depth. (Wozen­craft, 1990)

• Mating System
• monogamous

Gi­ant-striped mon­gooses breed year round and pro­duces one off­spring per year. (Wozen­craft, 1990)

Al­though other de­tails on the re­pro­duc­tion of G. gran­di­dieri are lack­ing, other species of mon­goose on Mada­gas­car have ges­ta­tion lengths of 72 to 92 days (Ga­lidia el­e­gans) and 90-105 days (Munc­gotic­tis de­cem­lin­eata). Both of these species pro­duce a sin­gle young which weighs about 50 g at birth. Mala­gasy broad striped mon­gooses prob­a­bly fall within this range of vari­a­tion. (Nowak, 1999)

Al­though mat­u­ra­tion in G. gran­di­dieri has not been re­ported, in other species of Mala­gasy mon­gooses, phys­i­cal ma­tu­rity is at­tained be­tween 1 and 2 years of age, and sex­ual ma­tu­rity seems to occur around 2 years of age. (Nowak, 1999)

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

• Breeding interval

  Giant-striped mongooses breed annually.

• Breeding season

  This species apparently breeds year round.

• Average number of offspring

  1

No spe­cific stud­ies have been con­ducted on the de­vel­op­ment of G. gran­di­dieri, but it seems that it is sim­i­lar to that of other mem­bers of the mon­goose fam­ily. Moth­ers typ­i­cally care for some­what al­tri­cial young in a den or bur­row of some sort, pro­vid­ing them with pro­tec­tion, groom­ing, and food in the form of milk. Be­cause this species lives in monog­a­mous pairs, it is likely that the fa­ther as­sists the mother in care of the young, al­though this has not been doc­u­mented. Mon­goose ju­ve­niles have been ob­served with their moth­ers dur­ing later stages of their de­vel­op­ment, but at what age they even­tu­ally break away from their moth­ers has not been doc­u­mented in this species. (Nowak, 1999; Wozen­craft, 1990)

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

Lifes­pan/Longevity

There is cur­rently no doc­u­mented in­for­ma­tion about the lifes­pan or longevity of gi­ant-striped mon­gooses.

Be­hav­ior

Ga­li­dic­tis gran­di­dieri is a noc­tur­nal an­i­mal. Due to the in­tense heat of its habi­tat, it lives in holes in lime­stone for­ma­tions dur­ing the day and emerges at night to hunt and for­age. The mon­gooses are rel­a­tively mo­bile and do not al­ways stay in the same hole every night. Wozen­craft in­di­cated that dur­ing his trap­ping of G. gran­di­dieri the an­i­mals seemed rel­a­tively docile and not very ex­citable. Young of the genus are re­ported to be eas­ily tamed, and will sit in the lap of the owner. If two an­i­mals were trav­el­ing to­gether and one was caught in a trap, the other would stay nearby, even when hu­mans were pre­sent. Over­all be­hav­iors and be­hav­ioral pat­terns have been dif­fi­cult to doc­u­ment with radio teleme­try, be­cause of the rough ter­rain the mon­goose lives in. The lime­stone rock makes it dif­fi­cult to track sig­nals if the an­i­mal goes deep into the rocks and the spiny veg­e­ta­tion is im­pos­si­ble to nav­i­gate through with out major dis­tur­bance to it. New means of track­ing and ob­serv­ing this an­i­mal are still being de­vel­oped. (Nowak, 1999; Wozen­craft, 1990)

• Key Behaviors
• terricolous
• nocturnal
• motile
• sedentary
• social

Home Range

In­di­vid­u­als main­tain a range of about 0.86 to 1.3 square kilo­me­ters. (Wozen­craft, 1990)

Com­mu­ni­ca­tion and Per­cep­tion

There has been no doc­u­men­ta­tion of the meth­ods of com­mu­ni­ca­tion used by gi­ant-striped mon­gooses or of other mon­gooses of the genus Ga­li­dic­tis. These an­i­mals are known to pro­duce odors, and fe­males have well de­vel­oped scent pouches. These pre­sum­ably func­tion in com­mu­ni­ca­tion. Other mon­gooses have com­mu­ni­ca­tion through body pos­tures and through tac­tile in­ter­ac­tions. It is likely that this species is sim­i­lar. Vo­cal­iza­tions may also be used. (Nowak, 1999; Wozen­craft, 1990)

• Communication Channels
• visual
• tactile
• acoustic
• chemical

• Perception Channels
• visual
• tactile
• acoustic
• chemical

Food Habits

Gi­ant-striped mon­gooses eat in­ver­te­brates, es­pe­cially giant hiss­ing cock­roaches and scor­pi­ons. How­ever, due to the strong crush­ing teeth and mas­sive skull, sci­en­tists sus­pect that the species also eats ro­dents and lizards. This species for­ages singly and in pairs. (Wozen­craft, 1990)

• Primary Diet
• carnivore
  • insectivore

• Animal Foods
• insects

Pre­da­tion

There are no doc­u­mented preda­tors of G. gran­di­dieri. The only pos­si­ble preda­tor in its known range is the cat-like fossa, which is a mem­ber of the civet fam­ily. Be­cause of the thorny veg­e­ta­tion found in the habi­tat of this species, avian preda­tors are un­likely. (Wozen­craft, 1990)

Ecosys­tem Roles

Gi­ant-striped mon­gooses act as a preda­tor on in­ver­te­brates and is prob­a­bly a prey species for the cat­like fossa. (Nowak, 1999; Wozen­craft, 1990)

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Pos­i­tive

There is no known doc­u­men­ta­tion of the eco­nomic im­por­tance of G. gran­di­dieri. Be­cause it lives in in­ac­ces­si­ble habi­tat, it is un­likely to have any pos­i­tive im­pact on human economies.

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Neg­a­tive

There is no known doc­u­men­ta­tion of the eco­nomic im­por­tance of G. gran­di­dieri.

Con­ser­va­tion Sta­tus

At this time, gi­ant-striped mon­gooses have only been doc­u­mented in the spiny desert of south­west­ern Mada­gas­car. They ap­pear to be gen­er­ally abun­dant in that area, how­ever with habi­tat loss that comes with in­creased de­vel­op­ment, and the ex­trac­tion of wood from its habi­tat, the pop­u­la­tion size of the giant striped mon­goose has begun to de­cline. There is still much re­search to be done on this species to de­ter­mine size of the pop­u­la­tion and risk of ex­tinc­tion. For now, re­searchers will try to pre­serve as much of the spiny desert of south­west­ern Mada­gas­car for the gi­ant-striped mon­goose and the other an­i­mals and plants en­demic to that re­gion. ("2002 IUCN Red List of Threat­ened Species", 2002; Wozen­craft, 1990)

• IUCN Red List

  Endangered
  More information

• IUCN Red List

  Endangered
  More information

• US Federal List

  No special status

• CITES

  No special status

Other Com­ments

The name G. gran­di­dieri is named for Al­fred Gran­di­dier, a Mala­gasy mam­mol­o­gist. There is a statue of him at the zoo in An­tana­narivo, Mada­gas­car.

Con­trib­u­tors

Nancy Shef­ferly (ed­i­tor), An­i­mal Di­ver­sity Web.

Sarah Braun (au­thor), Uni­ver­sity of Wis­con­sin-Stevens Point, Chris Yahnke (ed­i­tor, in­struc­tor), Uni­ver­sity of Wis­con­sin-Stevens Point.

Ref­er­ences

IUCN. 2002. "2002 IUCN Red List of Threat­ened Species" (On-line ). Ac­cessed 11/02/02 at http://​www.​redlist.​org/​search/​details.​php?​species=8834.

Wet­lands In­ter­na­tional. "Ram­sar Sites Data­base-Mada­gas­car 1MG001" (On-line ). Wet­lands In­ter­na­tional. Ac­cessed 11/02/02 at http://​www.​wetlands.​org/​RDB/​Ramsar_​Dir/​Madagascar/​MG001D02.​htm.

Good­man, S. 1996. A Sub­fos­sil Record of Ga­li­dic­tis gran­di­dieri (Her­pesti­dae: Ga­lidi­inae) from South­west­ern Mada­gas­car. Mam­malia, 60 (1): 150-151.

Nowak, R. 1995. "Mala­gasy Broad Striped Mon­gooses" (On-line). Walker's Mam­mals of the World On­line. Ac­cessed June 15, 2004 at http://​www.​press.​jhu.​edu/​books/​walkers_​mammals_​of_​the_​world/​carnivora/​carnivora.​viverridae.​galidictis.​html.

Nowak, R. 1999. Walker's Mam­mals of the World, Sixth Edi­tion. Bal­ti­more and Lon­don: The Johns Hop­kins Uni­ver­sity Press.

Parks, D. 1996-2001. "Mada­gas­car Bio­di­ver­sity and Con­ser­va­tion" (On-line ). Mis­souri Botan­i­cal Gar­den. Ac­cessed 11/01/02 at http://​ridgwaydb.​mobot.​org/​mobot/​madagascar/​default.​asp.

Postanaw­icz, R. 1997-2002. "Mala­gasy Gi­ant-striped Mon­goose (Ga­li­dic­tis gran­di­dieri)" (On-line ). Li­on­crusher's Do­main. Ac­cessed 10/12/02 at http://​www.​lioncrusher.​com/​animal.​asp?​animal=149.

Wozen­craft, W. 1986. A New Species of Striped Mon­goose from Mada­gas­car. Jour­nal of Mam­mol­ogy, 67 (3): 561-571.

Wozen­craft, W. 1990. Alive and Well in Tsi­manam­pet­sotsa. Nat­ural His­tory, 12/90: 28-30.