Abstract
Brown Mongoose Herpestes fuscus is crepuscular in habit and rarely encountered. Information on its natural history and ecology is limited and consequently its conservation requirements are not well understood. We report observations of a Brown Mongoose feeding on a Nilgiri Langur Semnopithecus johnii carcass in the Kalakad Mundanthurai Tiger Reserve, southern India. A camera trap was deployed over the Nilgiri Langur carcass over 10 nights during which, the mongoose visited the carcass on eight nights. Based on the images captured, the mongoose behaviour was broadly categorized as vigilance, feeding, walking and grooming. The mongoose was most active between 03.30–06.00 h and 19.00–00.00 h. Additionally, we report observations of a pair of Brown Mongoose foraging, and an incident of road mortality. These observations will add to the limited current understanding of the species, necessary for assessing its conservation status and identifying interventions.
Highlights
Brown Mongoose Herpestes fuscus is endemic to India and Sri Lanka (Phillips 1984)
Brown Mongoose was listed as Vulnerable in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species in 2008 and subsequently re-assessed as a Least Concern species in 2015, primarily due to frequent sightings and camera trap records since the first evaluation suggesting that the species was much more common than previously assumed (Mudappa et al 2008; Mudappa & Jathanna 2015)
Scavenging behaviour Using the camera trap images (n=501), we identified four behavioural aspects of the Brown Mongoose: feeding—where the animal is actively eating the carcass (Image 1a); vigilance—when the animal is alert, head raised and looking away from the carcass (Image 1b); walking—when the mongoose walked or ran into or out of the camera trap frame (Image 1c) and lastly, grooming—when the mongoose is licking or scratching itself (Image 1d)
Summary
In India, it has been recorded in the wet evergreen forests of the Western Ghats at altitudes ranging 492– 2,032 m (Kumara & Singh 2007; Mudappa et al 2008; Sreehari et al 2013). Detailed observations about the natural history and ecology of this species are lacking. Brown Mongoose is thought to be mostly crepuscular; it is often photographed by camera-traps between dusk (18.00h) and dawn (06.00h) from different parts of the Western Ghats (Sreehari et al 2013; Jathanna 2014; Sreehari et al 2016; Nikhil 2017). Information on the ecology and natural history of the Brown Mongoose is limited and the threats, if any, are not fully understood. The species’ diet is yet to be fully understood, it is known to scavenge on the carrion of larger mammals
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