Expansion and distribution of the Egyptian mongoose (Herpestes ichneumon) in the Iberian Peninsula

Abstract

. 2011). Gaubert and colleagues have studied the mitochondrial DNA of different populations of mongooses in North Africa, the Middle East, sub-Saharan Africa and the Iberian Peninsula. The results show the existence of a clear genetic structure, where the Iberian populations of mongooses have their own identity: high genetic variability and differentiation of the North African populations (their populations genetically closer). The different genetic parameters studied suggest some stability in the Iberian population. It is assumed that populations of North Africa colonised the Iberian Peninsula in the Pleistocene, by the way of communication corridors that were open between the two continents in the Strait of Gibraltar, as a result of fluctuations in sea levels between the glacial and interglacial periods. After the last Ice Age, the Iberian mongoose remained isolated from North African populations, and has evolved independently since then (Gaubert