Diet and foraging group size in the yellow mongoose: a comparison with the suricate and the bat-eared fox

Abstract

The diet of yellow mongooses Cynictis penicillata – solitary or pair foragers – are compared to that of group-foraging suricates or meerkats Suricata suricatta and bat-eared foxes Otocyon megalotis in southern Africa. It is shown that the diet of yellow mongooses in the Free State and Northern Cape Province differ between predominantly wet years (main prey: Isoptera, represented by harvester termites Trinervitermes trinervoides and Hodotermes mossambicus) and drier years (Coleoptera, represented by four families). Although often sympatric, and with diets comparable as to prey taxa utilised and their rank order, foraging group size of yellow mongooses are much smaller than those of suricates and bat-eared foxes. It is argued that phylogenetic inertia, i.e. the inability to better utilize the availability of abundant, clumped prey – such as harvester termites – by resorting to group foraging, can explain the small foraging group size of yellow mongooses.