Update of the Egyptian mongoose (Herpestes ichneumon) distribution in Spain

Abstract

The Egyptian mongoose Herpestes ichneumon (Linnaeus, 1758) is the only species of family Herpestidae that occurs naturally in Europe. It was restricted to SW Iberian Peninsula from where it seems to be expanding in the last decades. However, information on mongoose distribution and recent trends in some areas, such as central Spain (e.g. Castilla - La Mancha region), is scarce. With the aim of updating the distribution of the species in Spain, and particularly in this central area, we 1) performed a systematic questionnaire survey to environmental rangers, 2) collected citations from experts, and 3) carried out specific field surveys in some particular areas. Overall, 1,305 citations of the Egyptian mongoose were collected, resulting in 193 new 10x10 km UTM grids with mongoose occurrence in Spain; this extended the Egyptian mongoose distribution to 28.34 % of the Iberian 10x10 km UTM grids. Our results show that the Egyptian mongoose occurs in most of Extremadura, western Castilla - La Mancha and centralwestern Andalucía, with some isolated records in northern areas of Spain. This suggests that the range of this mongoose may be expanding in Spain, although other possible explanations for the new records, such as the lack of previous systematic studies on the species in the allegedly expanding area, could not be fully discarded.