Mongooses and Fossa: Herpestidae - Physical Characteristics, Habitat, Diet, Behavior And Reproduction, Mongooses And People, Conservation Status - GEOGRAPHIC RANGE
accounts including southern species
Mongooses live in mainland Africa, southern Europe, Madagascar, southern Asia including India, the Malay Peninsula as far as and including Sumatra, Borneo and Java; also the islands of Hainan and Taiwan.
Additional Topics
Mongooses are a family, Herpestidae, of small to medium-sized, mainly carnivorous Old World mammals. Their overall appearance suggests a small, generalized mammalian carnivore. They have long bodies, short but powerful legs, and long, often bushy tails. In some ways, they converge with (resemble) the mustelids (mammal family Mustelidae: weasels, badgers, skunks, otters, wolverines) of the New Worl…
Mongoose species have generalized, mainly carnivorous diets, helping themselves to insects, crabs, millipedes, earthworms, reptiles, amphibians, mammals, birds, birds' eggs, fruits, and roots. Before eating toads or caterpillars, a mongoose will roll them back and forth on the ground to wipe off skin poisons of toads and irritating hairs of caterpillars. Among mongoose species that eat bird…
Mongooses and humanity share intertwined histories. The animals have been the source of innumerable folk tales in their native lands, e.g., "Rikki-tikki-tavi," the famous short story by British writer Rudyard Kipling, based on native legends of India. Mongooses have been praised for destroying pests and condemned for preying on non-pests, especially domestic poultry. From ancient tim…
Physical characteristics: In appearance, the ring-tailed mongoose more or less follows the general mongoose body plan, while being a particularly beautiful and striking species, with red-brown to dark brown body fur and a long, bushy tail striped alternately with broad, red-brown and black rings. The underside is very dark to black. The head-and-body length of an adult Malagasy ring-tailed mongoos…
Physical characteristics: Its name derived from a native Malagasy word, and pronounced "foosh," this puzzling animal is as worthy of biodiversity poster status as the more famous lemurs of Madagascar. The fossa is the largest of all mongoose species, with an adult head-and-body length of 24 to 31.5 inches (61 to 80 centimeters), a tail as long as the head and body, and an adult weigh…
Citing this material
Please include a link to this page if you have found this material useful for research or writing a related article. Content on this website is from high-quality, licensed material originally published in print form. You can always be sure you're reading unbiased, factual, and accurate information.
Highlight the text below, right-click, and select “copy”. Paste the link into your website, email, or any other HTML document.
User Comments