The Angolan slender mongoose (''Herpestes flavescens'') is a

mongoose A mongoose is a small terrestrial carnivorous mammal belonging to the family Herpestidae. This family is currently split into two subfamilies, the Herpestinae and the Mungotinae. The Herpestinae comprises 23 living species that are native to so ...

native to southwestern

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

, specifically southwestern

Angola , national_anthem = " Angola Avante"() , image_map = , map_caption = , capital = Luanda , religion = , religion_year = 2020 , religion_ref = , coordina ...

and northwestern

Namibia Namibia (, ), officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country in Southern Africa. Its western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Zambia and Angola to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and ea ...

. It has been listed as "

Least Concern A least-concern species is a species that has been categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as evaluated as not being a focus of species conservation because the specific species is still plentiful in the wild. T ...

" on the

IUCN Red List The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species, also known as the IUCN Red List or Red Data Book, founded in 1964, is the world's most comprehensive inventory of the global conservation status of biol ...

, as it is not threatened and thought to be common. It has a long, slim body and there are different colour forms, a black or dark brown form in the southern part of its range, and a yellowish- or reddish-brown form in the north. This mongoose inhabits dry, rocky habitats and feeds on insects, scorpions and small vertebrates.

Taxonomy

The scientific name ''Herpestes gracilis'' var ''flavescens'' was proposed by

José Vicente Barbosa du Bocage José Vicente Barbosa du Bocage (2 May 1823 – 3 November 1907) was a Portuguese zoologist and politician. He was the curator of Zoology at the Museu Nacional de Lisboa in Lisbon. He published numerous works on mammals, birds, and fishes. In t ...

in 1889 who described an adult female collected in Angola's

Benguela Province Benguela ( umb, Luombaka Volupale) is a province of Angola, situated in the west of the country. It lies on the Atlantic Ocean, and borders the provinces of Cuanza Sul, Namibe, Huila, and Huambo. The province has an area of and its capital is ...

. The

black mongoose The black mongoose (''Herpestes flavescens nigratus'') is a subspecies of the Angolan slender mongoose occurring in Namibia and Angola. Although originally described as a separate species by Oldfield Thomas in 1928, it has often been considered ...

(''H. f. nigratus'') is now thought to be conspecific.

Description

The Angolan slender mongoose is a small, slender species with a long, well-furred tail. Males have a head-and-body length averaging with females smaller at , the tail in each case being about in length. The skull is moderately broad and the ears are neat and rounded. This mongoose has several different colour forms; most individuals are black or deep brown, but some individuals are reddish-brown to yellowish-orange, the underparts being yellowish-orange and the tapering tail being a similar colour but with a black tip.

Distribution and habitat

The Angolan slender mongoose is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

to southern Africa, its range including southwestern Angola and northwestern Namibia. The animals in Namibia are dark brown or black, while those in Angola are mostly the pale morph. Where the two types abut, in the vicinity of the

Cunene River The Cunene (Portuguese spelling) or Kunene (common Namibian spelling) is a river in Southern Africa. It flows from the Angola highlands south to the border with Namibia. It then flows west along the border until it reaches the Atlantic Ocean. It ...

, there are no intermediate colour forms. The natural

habitat In ecology, the term habitat summarises the array of resources, physical and biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species habitat can be seen as the physical ...

of this mongoose is

kopje An inselberg or monadnock () is an isolated rock hill, knob, ridge, or small mountain that rises abruptly from a gently sloping or virtually level surrounding plain. In Southern Africa a similar formation of granite is known as a koppie, a ...

s, rocky outcrops and areas with large granite boulders, and the woodlands and slopes surrounding these features.

Ecology

This mongoose is diurnal and largely solitary, with a home range of up to containing several dens. The ranges often overlap with the neighbouring mongoose. The diet consists largely of

insect Insects (from Latin ') are pancrustacean hexapod invertebrates of the class Insecta. They are the largest group within the arthropod phylum. Insects have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body ( head, thorax and abdomen), three pairs ...

s, solifuges,

scorpion Scorpions are predatory arachnids of the order Scorpiones. They have eight legs, and are easily recognized by a pair of grasping pincers and a narrow, segmented tail, often carried in a characteristic forward curve over the back and always end ...

lizard Lizards are a widespread group of squamate reptiles, with over 7,000 species, ranging across all continents except Antarctica, as well as most oceanic island chains. The group is paraphyletic since it excludes the snakes and Amphisbaenia alt ...

snake Snakes are elongated, Limbless vertebrate, limbless, carnivore, carnivorous reptiles of the suborder Serpentes . Like all other Squamata, squamates, snakes are ectothermic, amniote vertebrates covered in overlapping Scale (zoology), scales. Ma ...

s, small

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweigh ...

s and

mammal Mammals () are a group of vertebrate animals constituting the class Mammalia (), characterized by the presence of mammary glands which in females produce milk for feeding (nursing) their young, a neocortex (a region of the brain), fur or ...

s. The mongoose is itself preyed on by larger

predators Predation is a biological interaction where one organism, the predator, kills and eats another organism, its prey. It is one of a family of common feeding behaviours that includes parasitism and micropredation (which usually do not kill th ...

such as the

African hawk-eagle The African hawk-eagle (''Aquila spilogaster'') is a large bird of prey. Like all eagles, it belongs to the family ''Accipitridae''. This species’ feathered legs mark it as a member of the Aquilinae subfamily.Lerner, H., Christidis, L., Gamauf, ...

Status

The Angolan slender mongoose has a somewhat limited range, and though its population size has not been estimated, it seems to be common and no particular threats have been identified. The

International Union for Conservation of Nature The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN; officially International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natu ...

has rated its conservation status as being of "

least concern A least-concern species is a species that has been categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as evaluated as not being a focus of species conservation because the specific species is still plentiful in the wild. T ...

References

External links

* * {{Taxonbar, from=Q1576480 Angolan slender mongoose Mammals of Angola Mammals of Namibia Angolan slender mongoose Taxa named by José Vicente Barbosa du Bocage