More Information

Additional Information

Ichneumia albicaudawhite-tailed mongoose

By Malorey Matson

Geographic Range

White-tailed mongooses are found in most areas of sub-Saharan Africa, excluding the especially arid regions. They also range into areas of southern Arabia and have been found on Farasan Kabir Island, located in the Red Sea. Within their known geographic range they are fairly common. (Estes, 1991)

Habitat

White-tailed mongooses are found in a variety of terrestrial habitats within their known range including savannahs, woodlands and grasslands, but they are most commonly found in woodland areas with substantial coverage. They are not found in habitats with high moisture, such as rainforests or swampy areas. White-tailed mongooses are also present in agricultural areas and often occupy dens made from old termite mounds. They are found at elevations less than 2,500 m. (Admasu, et al., 2004; Estes, 1991)

  • Range elevation
    2,500 (high) m
    ft

Physical Description

White-tailed mongooses are a rather large species of mongoose, with both sexes reaching an average of 103 cm in length, from their head to the tip of their tail. Their weight averages 3.6 kg for males and 3.4 kg for females. They have gray or gray-brown under fur, normally about 15 mm long, which is thickest along their tail and hindquarters. Projecting out from their under fur are long black and white banded guard hairs. The terminal end of their tail is normally pure white, with the exception of individuals found in west Africa, whose terminal tail ends are sometimes black. White-tailed mongooses have 5 toes on each foot, with stout curling claws; the area extending from their palm to their wrist is hairless. Their molars are broad and flattened. Both sexes have 2 pairs of mammae located on their abdomen. (Estes, 1991; Taylor, 1972)

  • Sexual Dimorphism
  • sexes alike
  • Average mass
    3.4 to 3.6 kg
    lb
  • Average mass
    3500 g
    123.35 oz
    AnAge
  • Average length
    103 cm
    40.55 in

Reproduction

There is not an extensive amount of information available on the reproduction of white-tailed mongooses, but some aspects are known. Copulation is thought to occur over about a half hour, with multiple mounts occurring, each mount is ended by the female breaking away. (Skinner and Chimimba, 2005)

The time at which breeding occurs is still under debate, but it is thought to occur shortly after the dry season, which runs from August to November. The appearance of litters occurs most often in the wet season, from February to May, but there is documentation of litters occurring in the dry season. The female normally gives birth to 1 to 3 young. There is currently insufficient information on the gestation period, birth mass and the age at which white-tailed mongooses reach sexual maturity. (Estes, 1991; Skinner and Chimimba, 2005)

  • Breeding interval
    With litters appearing mostly in the wet season and weaning occurring at 9 months, it is thought that breeding occurs only once yearly.
  • Breeding season
    Breeding is thought to occur from December to March, shortly after the dry season.
  • Range number of offspring
    1 to 3
  • Average number of offspring
    2.3
    AnAge
  • Average weaning age
    9 months
  • Average time to independence
    9 months

Parental care is provided by the female and young are weaned at around 9 months of age. Just before 9 months, the weaned offspring begin foraging by themselves for several hours each night. By 9 months old the young are completely independent, but are known to continue foraging on maternal ranges for up to 4 months. Where food is plentiful, some females may remain and start an overlapping home range of their own. (Estes, 1991; Skinner and Chimimba, 2005)

  • Parental Investment
  • female parental care
  • pre-hatching/birth
    • provisioning
      • female
    • protecting
      • female
  • pre-weaning/fledging
    • provisioning
      • female
    • protecting
      • female
  • pre-independence
    • provisioning
      • female
    • protecting
      • female

Lifespan/Longevity

There is no information on the average lifespan of white-tailed mongooses. One individual who resided in the Zoological Gardens of London had a recorded lifespan of 10 years and 29 days. (Taylor, 1972)

Behavior

White-tailed mongooses are normally solitary, with the exception of a mother and her young. They are primarily nocturnal and are more active on cloudy overcast nights than on clear nights. White-tailed mongooses are sedentary and do not migrate to new locations except to leave parental territories to establish their own. White-tailed mongooses live in dens made from inactive termite mounds and depressions at the base of trees; they do not dig their own dens. They are ground dwellers and unlike many other mongooses, such as slender mongooses, they do not sit on their hind legs. They have a trotting gait, similar to a dog and walk digitigrade on their toes. They keep their head low, with their shoulders lower than the base of their tail, which normally trails on the ground. When threatened they have a running gallop. Both males and females perform a characteristic tail arch and lift when they urinate. The function of this arch is not known but it is thought to serve as an alert to other mongooses of their presence through scent marking. (Estes, 1991; Skinner and Chimimba, 2005; Taylor, 1972)

  • Range territory size
    8 (high) km^2

Home Range

White-tailed mongooses may have a home range size of up to 8 sq km. The average home range size for a male is 0.97 sq km, while the average for a female is 0.64 sq km. Males do not have overlapping ranges but they may completely overlap with female ranges, likewise, several females may inhabit the same range. (Nowak, 2005)

Communication and Perception

White-tailed mongooses use forms of olfactory and vocal communication. Both sexes scent mark using anal glands, urine and dung. While urinating, these animals perform a characteristic tail arch. The purpose of this behavior is not known, however, solitary mongooses perform this action less frequently than those traveling together. They use a wide array of sounds to communicate with conspecifics and deter predators including whimpering, growling, shrieking and barking. (Estes, 1991)

Food Habits

The diet of white-tailed mongooses consists primarily of insects, including beetles and mole crickets. They also eat rats, mice, shrews, small birds and lizards as well as berries and fruit when they are in season. During the rainy seasons, they eat a large amount of dung beetles and dung beetle larvae, while feeding mainly on termites during the dry season. When found in civilization, these mongooses are common raiders of garbage cans. They have also been seen eating eggs; they throw eggs between their back legs, against hard objects to acquire its contents. (Estes, 1991; Nowak, 2005; Taylor, 1972)

  • Animal Foods
  • birds
  • mammals
  • amphibians
  • reptiles
  • eggs
  • carrion
  • insects
  • Plant Foods
  • fruit

Predation

Humans are the main predator of white-tailed mongooses. They are hunted in several areas of Africa using guns, traps and dogs, after which they are either eaten or sold in markets. Young may also be at risk of predation by large birds of prey and large snakes. White-tailed mongooses ward off predators by releasing a noxious scent from their anal glands, making it unappealing to possible hunters. (Carpaneto, et al., 2007; Nowak, 2005)

Ecosystem Roles

White-tailed mongooses play the role of both predator and prey in their ecosystem. They prey on insects, eggs and small vertebrates. Their main predators are humans but they may also be prey upon by large birds or snakes. They are also to host ticks. (Punyua and Newson, 1985; Taylor, 1972)

Commensal/Parasitic Species

Economic Importance for Humans: Positive

White-tailed mongooses hold economic importance for humans in the form of food and income. They are sold in markets for food and fur. In rural markets they can be sold for 1,500 to 2,500 CFA, the equivalent of 3 to 4 US dollars, in urban markets they can be sold for 4,000 to 6,000 CFA, the equivalent of 8 to 12 US dollars. Although they are trapped in some areas, white-tailed mongooses may make good household pets if they are raised from a young age. Since their main food source is insects, they may help control insect populations in areas inhabited by humans. (Carpaneto, et al., 2007; Nowak, 2005)

  • Positive Impacts
  • food
  • controls pest population

Economic Importance for Humans: Negative

White-tailed mongooses have no significant negative impact on humans. They are, however, considered pests when living in close proximity. When they find themselves close to civilization they may steal chickens and tip over garbage cans to find food. (Nowak, 2005)

Conservation Status

White-tailed mongooses are common within their geographic range. They are widely adaptable even where human civilization dominates and their natural environment has been modified. (Hoffmann, 2012)

Contributors

Malorey Matson (author), Northern Michigan University, John Bruggink (editor), Northern Michigan University, Leila Siciliano Martina (editor), Animal Diversity Web Staff.

Glossary

Ethiopian

living in sub-Saharan Africa (south of 30 degrees north) and Madagascar.

World Map

acoustic

uses sound to communicate

agricultural

living in landscapes dominated by human agriculture.

bilateral symmetry

having body symmetry such that the animal can be divided in one plane into two mirror-image halves. Animals with bilateral symmetry have dorsal and ventral sides, as well as anterior and posterior ends. Synapomorphy of the Bilateria.

carnivore

an animal that mainly eats meat

carrion

flesh of dead animals.

chemical

uses smells or other chemicals to communicate

endothermic

animals that use metabolically generated heat to regulate body temperature independently of ambient temperature. Endothermy is a synapomorphy of the Mammalia, although it may have arisen in a (now extinct) synapsid ancestor; the fossil record does not distinguish these possibilities. Convergent in birds.

female parental care

parental care is carried out by females

food

A substance that provides both nutrients and energy to a living thing.

insectivore

An animal that eats mainly insects or spiders.

iteroparous

offspring are produced in more than one group (litters, clutches, etc.) and across multiple seasons (or other periods hospitable to reproduction). Iteroparous animals must, by definition, survive over multiple seasons (or periodic condition changes).

motile

having the capacity to move from one place to another.

native range

the area in which the animal is naturally found, the region in which it is endemic.

nocturnal

active during the night

polygynous

having more than one female as a mate at one time

scent marks

communicates by producing scents from special gland(s) and placing them on a surface whether others can smell or taste them

scrub forest

scrub forests develop in areas that experience dry seasons.

seasonal breeding

breeding is confined to a particular season

sedentary

remains in the same area

sexual

reproduction that includes combining the genetic contribution of two individuals, a male and a female

solitary

lives alone

suburban

living in residential areas on the outskirts of large cities or towns.

tactile

uses touch to communicate

temperate

that region of the Earth between 23.5 degrees North and 60 degrees North (between the Tropic of Cancer and the Arctic Circle) and between 23.5 degrees South and 60 degrees South (between the Tropic of Capricorn and the Antarctic Circle).

terrestrial

Living on the ground.

territorial

defends an area within the home range, occupied by a single animals or group of animals of the same species and held through overt defense, display, or advertisement

tropical

the region of the earth that surrounds the equator, from 23.5 degrees north to 23.5 degrees south.

tropical savanna and grassland

A terrestrial biome. Savannas are grasslands with scattered individual trees that do not form a closed canopy. Extensive savannas are found in parts of subtropical and tropical Africa and South America, and in Australia.

savanna

A grassland with scattered trees or scattered clumps of trees, a type of community intermediate between grassland and forest. See also Tropical savanna and grassland biome.

temperate grassland

A terrestrial biome found in temperate latitudes (>23.5° N or S latitude). Vegetation is made up mostly of grasses, the height and species diversity of which depend largely on the amount of moisture available. Fire and grazing are important in the long-term maintenance of grasslands.

visual

uses sight to communicate

viviparous

reproduction in which fertilization and development take place within the female body and the developing embryo derives nourishment from the female.

References

Admasu, E., S. Thirgood, A. Bekele, M. Laurenson. 2004. Spatial ecology of white-tailed mongoose in farmland in the Ethiopian Highlands. African Journal of Ecology, 42: 153-159.

Carpaneto, G., A. Fusari, H. Okongo. 2007. Subsistence hunting and exploitation of mammals in the Haut-Ogoouse province, south-eastern Gabon. Journal of Anthropological Sciences, 85: 183-193.

Djagoun, S., P. Gaubert. 2009. Small carnivores from southern Benin: a preliminary assessment of diversity and hunting pressure. Small Carnivore Conservation, 40: 1-10.

Durant, S., M. Craft, C. Foley, K. Hampson, A. Lobora, M. Msuha, E. Eblate, J. Bukombe, J. Mchetto, N. Pettorelli. 2010. Does size matter? An investigation of habitat use across a carnivore assemblage in the Serengeti, Tanzania. Journal of Animal Ecology, 79: 1012-1022.

Estes, R. 1991. The Behavior Guide to African Mammals: Including Hoofed Mammals, Carnivores, Primates. Los Angeles, California: University of California Press.

Hoffmann, M. 2012. "Ichneumia albicauda" (On-line). The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Accessed February 13, 2013 at http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/41620/0.

Nowak, R. 2005. Walker's Carnivores of the World. Baltimore, Maryland: The Johns Hopkins University Press.

Punyua, D., R. Newson. 1985. The brown ear tick Rhipicephalus appendiculatus Neumann (Acarina: Ixodidae) and associated tick species on wild and domestic hosts at Muguga, Kenya. The Journal of Parasitology, 71: 248-252.

Skinner, J., C. Chimimba. 2005. The Mammals of the Southern African Subregion. United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press.

Taylor, M. 1972. Ichneumia albicauda. Mammalian Species, 12: 1-4.

Search

Navigation Links

Information
Specimens
Classification

Classification