Selous's mongoose (''Paracynictis selousi'') is a

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

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

native to

Southern Africa Southern Africa is the southernmost region of Africa. No definition is agreed upon, but some groupings include the United Nations geoscheme for Africa, United Nations geoscheme, the intergovernmental Southern African Development Community, and ...

. It is the only member of the genus ''Paracynictis''.

Taxonomy

Four subspecies were described: *''Paracynictis selousi bechuanae'' *''Paracynictis selousi ngamiensis'' *''Paracynictis selousi selousi'' *''Paracynictis selousi sengaani''

Distribution and habitat

Selous's mongoose is endemic to Southern Africa. Its range includes

Angola Angola, officially the Republic of Angola, is a country on the west-Central Africa, central coast of Southern Africa. It is the second-largest Portuguese-speaking world, Portuguese-speaking (Lusophone) country in both total area and List of c ...

Zambia Zambia, officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country at the crossroads of Central Africa, Central, Southern Africa, Southern and East Africa. It is typically referred to being in South-Central Africa or Southern Africa. It is bor ...

Malawi Malawi, officially the Republic of Malawi, is a landlocked country in Southeastern Africa. It is bordered by Zambia to the west, Tanzania to the north and northeast, and Mozambique to the east, south, and southwest. Malawi spans over and ...

Namibia Namibia, officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country on the west coast of Southern Africa. Its borders include the Atlantic Ocean to the west, Angola and Zambia to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south; in the no ...

Botswana Botswana, officially the Republic of Botswana, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. Botswana is topographically flat, with approximately 70 percent of its territory part of the Kalahari Desert. It is bordered by South Africa to the sou ...

Zimbabwe file:Zimbabwe, relief map.jpg, upright=1.22, Zimbabwe, relief map Zimbabwe, officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Bots ...

Mozambique Mozambique, officially the Republic of Mozambique, is a country located in Southeast Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi and Zambia to the northwest, Zimbabwe to the west, and Eswatini and South Afr ...

, and

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

.Nowak, Ronald M. Walker’s Mammals of the World. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1991

Physical description

The Selous's mongoose has a total length of and a tail length of . It weighs about .Stuart, Chris and Tilde. The Field Guide to Mammals of Southern Africa. Cape Town: Struik Publishers, 2007 The body of the mongoose ranges from pale speckled grey to tawny grey with a pale underside, while the legs are brown or black.Stuart, Chris and Tilde The tail of the mongoose is white at the tip, making it identifiable from the

white-tailed mongoose The white-tailed mongoose (''Ichneumia albicauda'') is a species in the mongoose family Herpestidae. It is the only member of the genus ''Ichneumia''. Taxonomy ''Herpestes albicaudus'' was the scientific name proposed by Georges Cuvier in 1829 ...

, which has a tail that is three-quarters white. The Selous's mongoose is also smaller and more slender than the white-tailed mongoose. The mongoose has four digits on each limb and long, slightly curved claws that are associated with digging. The main difference between the sexes is that the female Selous's mongoose has three pairs of nipples on her underside, while the male does not.

Behavior

The Selous's mongoose is a

nocturnal Nocturnality is a ethology, behavior in some non-human animals characterized by being active during the night and sleeping during the day. The common adjective is "nocturnal", versus diurnality, diurnal meaning the opposite. Nocturnal creatur ...

species, but has been observed above ground during the day.Nowak, Ronald M. Walker’s Mammals of the World. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1991. Although usually solitary, mongooses will sometimes form pairs, and it is not uncommon to see females with young. The Selous's mongoose digs its own burrows, but may opportunistically use those of other animals.Stuart, Chris and Tilde. The Field Guide to Mammals of Southern Africa. Cape Town: Struik Publishers, 2007. The Selous's mongoose can defend itself by expelling strong-smelling secretion from its anal gland. Its white-tipped tail may be an indication of this ability. The Selous's mongoose's primary source of food is

invertebrates Invertebrates are animals that neither develop nor retain a vertebral column (commonly known as a ''spine'' or ''backbone''), which evolved from the notochord. It is a paraphyletic grouping including all animals excluding the chordate subphylum ...

. It also feeds on small

rodents Rodents (from Latin , 'to gnaw') are mammals of the order Rodentia ( ), which are characterized by a single pair of continuously growing incisors in each of the upper and lower jaws. About 40% of all mammal species are rodents. They are n ...

amphibians Amphibians are ectothermic, anamniote, anamniotic, tetrapod, four-limbed vertebrate animals that constitute the class (biology), class Amphibia. In its broadest sense, it is a paraphyletic group encompassing all Tetrapod, tetrapods, but excl ...

reptiles Reptiles, as commonly defined, are a group of tetrapods with an ectothermic metabolism and Amniotic egg, amniotic development. Living traditional reptiles comprise four Order (biology), orders: Testudines, Crocodilia, Squamata, and Rhynchocepha ...

, and

birds Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class (biology), class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the Oviparity, laying of Eggshell, hard-shelled eggs, a high Metabolism, metabolic rate, a fou ...

. The front claws of the mongoose are ideally adapted to search for subterranean

beetle Beetles are insects that form the Taxonomic rank, order Coleoptera (), in the superorder Holometabola. Their front pair of wings are hardened into wing-cases, elytra, distinguishing them from most other insects. The Coleoptera, with about 40 ...

larvae. The species will dig through tufts of grass or leaf litter to find food.Mitchell, C. “Selous’ Mongoose.” The Ultimate Field Guide for Mammals of Southern Africa. Litters are usually made up of two to four young, which are born from August to March.

Habitat

The Selous's mongoose lives primarily in open scrub and

woodland A woodland () is, in the broad sense, land covered with woody plants (trees and shrubs), or in a narrow sense, synonymous with wood (or in the U.S., the '' plurale tantum'' woods), a low-density forest forming open habitats with plenty of sunli ...

. It does not inhabit either forests or arid areas. It lives in labyrinthine, burrows of its own construction.

Conservation status and threats

The Selous's mongoose is classified as being of

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

. There are no known threats to the species, and the population is widely distributed.

Etymology of the name

The mongoose is named after

Frederick Selous Frederick Courteney Selous, Distinguished Service Order, DSO (; 31 December 1851 – 4 January 1917) was a British people, British explorer, army British Army, officer, professional hunter, and conservation movement, conservationist, famous for ...

. Both Selous's mongoose and Selous’ mongoose are accepted spellings of the name.Selous’ Mongoose. The Animal Files. Web. Accessed March 2015 The Selous's mongoose has other names in native African language, as follows: Afrikaans: Kleinwitstertmuishond Zulu: Nsengane Tswana: Kgano Shona: Jerenyenje.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q944417 Selous's mongoose Mammals of Angola Mammals of Botswana Mammals of Malawi Mammals of Mozambique Mammals of Namibia Mammals of South Africa Mammals of Zambia Mammals of Zimbabwe Fauna of Southern Africa Selous's mongoose Selous's mongoose