Small Indian Mongoose Research Articles

Cardiovascular functions of the unanesthetized small indian mongoose, Herpestes auropunctatus

Abstract o 1. Twenty-four unanesthetized male Herpestes auropunctatus weighing 617 ± 19 (S.E.) g and ranging 390–825 g were studied. 2. Cardiac output of 24 male mongooses was 206 ± 10 ml/min or 334 ± 18 ml/min per kg which is higher than other mammals of similar size. 3. Heart rate and mean aortic blood pressure were 252 ± 10 beats/min and 114 ± 3·2 mm Hg, respectively. 4. The captive mongooses exhibited low arterial and mixed venous oxygen contents with normal hematocrit, indicating hypochromic anemia. 5. Resting oxygen consumption at 26 ± 1°C was 10·3 ± 0·3 ml/min or 16·9 ± 0·6 ml/min per kg.

The diet of feral Herpestes auropunctatus (Carnivora: Viverridae) in the Fijian Islands

On the basis of scat analysis, the diet of the mongoose Herpestes auropunctatus is described for animals living in a variety of habitats on Viti Levu, Fiji. The species eats a wide variety of vertebrate, invertebrate and plant food. Although introduced to Fiji in an attempt to control rodents, the mongoose has had little success in this respect. However, as a result of predation it may have had an adverse effect on various members of the native fauna.

Epidemiology of mongoose rabies in Grenada.

Rabies was found in 0.5-3.7% of mongooses (Herpestes auropunctatus) trapped in Grenada between 1968 and 1972. The difference in the proportions of rabid mongooses during this period was significant and suggested a fluctuation in the incidence of the disease. Serum neutralizing antibodies were found in 18.9% of animals examined, indicating a high transmission rate between mongooses. In addition the behaviour of rabid mongooses is described, and the virus titers in organs from some of these animals are recorded. Human, domestic animal, and livestock involvement in the basic mongoose rabies cycle is discussed.

An analysis of the contents of the anal scent pockets of Herpestes auropunctatus (Carnivora: Viverridae)

The structure of the anal organ of Herpestes auropunctatus is described. The scent is analysed and is shown to contain a series of saturated carboxylic acids. The acids are shown to be the product of bacterial metabolism, the species involved are isolated and identified.

Sounds of the Mongoose Herpestes auropunctatus

The vocal repertoire of Herpestes auropunctatus consists of about 12 basic sounds that may be isolated by the human ear. Physical analyses of a large sample of recorded mongoose sounds also indicate 12 types of vocalization and these sound categories correlate nearly perfectly with those distinguishable by the human ear. The mongoose modulates its sounds intensively, spectrally, and temporally. Distinctive features of these sound types are their onset-offset transients, and their patterns of variation in amplitude and spectral content. The extensive vocal repertoire of Herpestes auropunctatus provides a means of interspecific and intraspecific communication under the conditions of limited visibility that exist in its favored habitat of dense grass and brush.

Rabies in Grenada

Rabies in Grenada wildlife is at present almost exclusively confined to the mongoose Herpestes auropunctatus, and it is currently estimated that 3·5% of the mongoose population is rabid. There have been 4 human deaths in the past decade, and most of the rabies in dogs, cats, and domestic livestock is thought to originate from mongoose bites. In 1971 over 11,000 dogs were vaccinated, and 25 people received antirabies treatment as a consequence of bites. Although rabies is not yet established in dogs, the presence of a large dog population poses a permanent threat, and dog vaccination campaigns and attempts at mongoose eradication have provided only temporary relief from an increasing problem. The history of rabies on the island up to the end of 1971 is considered, and the outlook for the future discussed.

Notes éthologiques sur quelques Carnivores malgaches : le Mungotictis lineata Pocock

Mungotictis lineata occupies, with Galidia elegans, a similar ecological niche in Madagascar to the mongooses in Africa and Asia ; the species even uses the same technique as mongooses for breaking-open eggs. M. lineata, which greatly resembles the asiatic Herpestes javanicus, is very unevenly distributed in deciduous forests on sandy soil in the West of Madagascar. Like G. elegans, the species lives in pairs and produces only one young per year.

Age criteria for the prenatal and immature mongoose in Hawaii.

AbstractAnatomical age markers are established in the small Indian mongoose (Herpestes auropunctatus) for embyronic, fetal, nestling and juvenile stages. Embryos and fetuses excised from living pregnant females and placed on a time scale of 49 days, the known gestation period, indicate that implantation is at approximately eight to ten days after insemination and that the transition from embryo to fetus occurs at about 14 to 28 days. The sequence of stages grossly discernible in prenatal development is highly similar to that in other mammals. Age in laboratory‐reared pups was correlated with a regular sequence of tooth eruption and replacement. The full set of permanent teeth is present at the age of 22 weeks. M3 was found in 2.8% of 142 adult skulls examined. Prominent reductions occur in the slope of the growth curve during early fetal stages, and at birth, weaning and independence from the mother.

The somatic chromosomes of the small Indian mongoose: autoradiographic analysis of an unbalanced translocation heterozygote.

The somatic karyotype of the small Indian mongoose <i>(Herpesies auropunctatus </i>Hodgson)was investigated and found to contain 2N = 36 in the female (NF = 68) and 2N = 35 in the male (NF = 66). The female specimen studied was a mosaic (approximately 25%) for an unbalanced translocation, which was ascertained through a large submetacentric marker chromosome. Sex-chromatin determinations revealed approximately 30 % of positive cells to contain two sex-chromatin masses. Autoradiographic analysis identified the X chromosome as a medium-sized metacentric element. However, only one arm of the X was late replicating, and in 30% of the cells both X chromosomes showed late-replication patterns of only one arm. No discernable Y chromosome was evident in male cells.

Cat flea-mongoose relationships in Hawaii.

Ecological, behavioral, and physiological evidence is presented to show that the mongoose, Herpestes auropunctatus auropunctatus (Hodgson), is a true host of the cat flea, Ctenocephalides felis (Bouche), in Hawaii. Monthly samples taken during a 3-year field study in the Hamakua District, Island of Hawaii, showed that the incidence of cat fleas was higher on male than on female mongooses, especially during the mongoose breeding season. In laboratory experiments the sexes were equally suitable as hosts. Thus, the higher flea incidence on males is attributed to their larger body size and to their more intense activity during the breeding season. Very young mongooses were more heavily infested than older ones. Comparative samples of mongooses from the Hamakua, N Kohala, and S Kona Districts showed extraordinarily high host- and flea-population densities in Kona. In data from the entire study, flea sex ratios were not significantly different on male and female hosts. The ratios were also stable suggesting that the fleas bred continuously without significant fluctuations. The mongoose, with its apparently simple denning habits, and the cat flea are sufficiently adapted to each other for a successful association.

New sex determining mechanism in a mammal.

ONE female and two males of the small Indian mongoose (Herpestes auropunctatus Hodgson, Viverridae, Carnivora) were investigated. The chromosomes were examined in acetic orcein squash preparations from bone marrow and testis. The chromosome number was found to be 36 in the female and 35 in the two males (Table 1). The female has two X-chromosomes and the male one (Fig. 1). No visible Y-chromosome is present in the male.

Discovery of Breeding Black-Capped Petrels on Hispaniola

THE status of the Black-capped Petrel (Pterodroma hasitata), which formerly bred on several West Indian islands, has been obscure since late in the nineteenth century, when the location of the diminishing breeding colonies was lost to science. The early history and decline of this species has been well summarized by Bent (1922) and Murphy (1936). Both authors suggested that the species might be nearing extinction. In 1951, a breeding colony of the closely allied Cahow (Pterodroma cahow) was discovered on Bermuda (Murphy and Mowbray, 1951). This event bode well for the status of P. hasitata for it soon became evident from a study of the Cahow that the survival problems facing that species since the seventeenth century must have been greater than any likely to have confronted the Black-capped Petrel. It seemed probable, even in 1960, that a breeding colony of the latter might survive in some part of the former range. Published references to the bird after 1900 support this view, although they deal mainly with sightings and specimen records. Nichols (1913) and Wetmore (1927) have observed P. hasitata at sea during the present century. Wetmore saw several Black-capped Petrels in the Sargasso area of the Caribbean in 1920. In view of the vast ocean range characteristic of most petrels, this species must still have been fairly numerous at that date. A similar conclusion might be drawn from the record of an adult female found dead on Fairfield Beach, Connecticut, after the disastrous hurricane of 21 September 1938 (Holman, 1952). Hobley (1932) reported an adult picked up apparently exhausted in the streets of Roseau, in Dominica, on 2 May 1932. Although there is no positive indication that this bird came from a breeding colony on Dominica, it may be significant that this is the only island within the former breeding range of P. hasitata on which the mongoose (Herpestes auropunctatus) has not been introduced. The remaining published records pointed to Hispaniola as the last major breeding ground, and also gave some indication of comparative breeding success as late as 1938. Wetmore and Swales (1931) noted the capture of a specimen at Moca, an inland locality in the Dominican Republic, on 15 May 1928, and in another paper Wetmore (1932) stated that no less than 4 specimens were taken and fully 100 observed on this occasion. At a later date, Wetmore (1939) reported on a fledgling, not long out of the nest, captured on the streets of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on 30 June 1938. James Bond (pers. comm.), who visited La Selle Ridge in Haiti in the summers of 1928, 1930, and 1941, was told by the natives that a ducklike nocturnal bird occurred there in winter. This seems