WildlifeCampus – The Behaviour Guide to African Carnivores 1

Module # 2 – Component # 11

Banded mongoose
Mungos mungo

TRAITS

A medium-sized, squat mongoose with stripes.

Weight and length: 1 - 2 kg, head and body 33 - 40.6 cm, tail 15 - 28.5 cm,
males slightly heavier than females. Head broad with pointed snout, wide, sharp-
pointed cheek teeth adapted to eating insects. Short legs, feet 5-toed with long,
slightly curved claws.

Coat: coarse and wiry with hardly any undercoat.

Coloration: geographically variable, grizzled gray, back with distinct transverse

banding, lower limbs and tail tip dark, underparts lighter.

Scent glands: anal pouch and cheek glands).

Mammae: 6.

DISTRIBUTION

Northern and Southern Savanna, extending into Somali-Masai and South West
Arid Zones, replaced by suricate in drier parts of Botswana and Namibia.

RELATIVES

The Gambian mongoose, M. gambianus, inhabits the Guinea Savanna of West

Africa. It probably has a similar social organization and food habits. Though
unbanded, this mongoose has perhaps the most conspicuous markings of any
African mongoose: black-and-white diagonal stripes on the sides of the neck.

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ECOLOGY

The banded mongoose is associated with wooded savanna and termite mounds
usually near (but sometimes distant from) water. It avoids forests but likes
undergrowth, and rarely ventures far into open country, although packs range
onto the Serengeti short-grass plains. The diet consists mainly of beetles and
their larvae, millipedes, earwigs, ants, crickets, termites, spiders, and the like.
Vertebrate prey (mice, toads, nestling birds and eggs, lizards, snakes) accounts
for probably less than 12% of the diet. Banded mongooses drink irregularly and
sparingly (by lapping or by licking wetted forepaws).

SOCIAL ORGANIZATION

Diurnal, highly gregarious, living in ± closed, territorial packs with several

breeding adults.

This mongoose forms the largest groups, with up to 35 adults and subadults in a
pack, and in some areas (Kruger N.P.) possibly twice that many. Instead of a
single breeding pair, there are typically 3 - 4 breeding females and perhaps as
many males. This holds true in large as well as small packs, suggesting that the
dominance of breeding individuals somehow inhibits reproduction in low-ranking
adults (see dwarf mongoose account). Leadership and dominance may be
vested in the most senior pair. Female offspring may often remain in their natal
pack, but males usually emigrate and attempt to join or take over another pack.

The mean number in 5 known packs living on Queen Elizabeth N.P.'s Mweya
Peninsula was 14 - 17 (range 6 - 35). Here there were up to 19 mongooses/km2.
The adult sex ratio was approximately equal, and the mean home range was 80
ha (38 - 130). The 2 biggest packs occupied the largest (>1 km2), openest
ranges.

Over half of 144 investigated den sites were in thickets and mostly in termite
mounds, 21 % were in erosion gullies, 15 % were in bare termite mounds (but
with cover nearby), 11 % were holes in the open, and 3% were man-made (e.g., a
bone pile). Favored den sites were situated on slopes and had 1 - 9 entrances. A
den excavated after being used for breeding had 3 entrances, with tunnels of c. 9
cm diameter leading 135 – 210 cm to central chambers 150 by 90 cm and up to
50 cm high. Two side tunnels led to chambers big enough for a few mongooses.

Latrine areas were found in a side chamber and 2 tunnels, evidently

supplementing the latrines just outside the den. Dens are often used just once for
only a few days, even when there are small offspring, but customs vary in
different packs. A favored site may be revisited often, or continuously occupied
for up to 2 months.

Although females have been known to dominate males, at least in captivity, there
is no clear indication that either sex dominates. Rather, rank seems to be
determined by age and by individual traits such as temperament.

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Males are more active in scent-marking (see below) and more aggressive toward
other packs. Each pack is a closed and highly integrated social unit. In the
Uganda study, no immigration was seen in over 3 years; all recruitment of
members came from within. However, some of the packs split, apparently
voluntarily, and males singly and in small groups were occasionally seen
following and trying to join other packs, suggesting that males, anyway,
sometimes transfer.

Group cohesion is maintained through mutual scent-marking, social grooming,

and vocalizations. Banded mongooses not only mark the ground and novel
objects (especially around dens) with their anal glands, but also one another (cf.
yellow and dwarf mongooses). The frequency and intensity of marking reflect the
degree of excitement. Typically, one pack member invites another to mark by
lying on its side and showing its striped back, which the other then rubs with its
anal pouch; this behavior may be or derive from submissive-dominance behavior.

At highest intensity, as when confronting a predator, pack members mark one

another feverishly while writhing and squirming in a mass (see Anti-predator
Behavior). Also, pack members may take turns rubbing their cheeks, throats, and
bellies on objects such as small stones or their own faeces that other pack
members have marked, thereby anointing themselves with a strong communal
odor, which may serve both to identify and to give confidence to the group.

Packs tend to be mutually antagonistic, even sections of a pack that has split
into 2. Since each pack stays within its own home range, meetings are
infrequent, and the usual reaction when neighboring packs see each other is
mutual withdrawal from the border. However, there is often some range overlap,
typically of overnight refuges located near a common boundary (cf. dwarf
mongoose). Meetings occur by chance when 2 groups head for the same den on
the same evening. The bigger group then chases the smaller group.

Equally matched packs may fight. Encounters feature loud screeching and angry
churring, frequent scent-marking and chasing, and occasional grappling and
biting. After approaching in close formation like rival gangs, pack members
skirmish individually and in small groups. They may become scattered over a
wide area and so preoccupied as to be oblivious to possible danger from other
animals. Two encounters between large packs of 28 - 29 only ended with
darkness, after 1 ½ and 2 hours. Several estrous females were present in one
pack and males from the other attempted copulation, at least once successfully
despite the determined defense of their pack males. It is unknown whether the
females resisted.

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ACTIVITY

After spending the night in an underground burrow huddling together for warmth,
a pack emerges typically about an hour after dawn. First one, then another
pokes its head out of a hole, looks about, and sniffs the air. If satisfied, they come
out, relieve themselves at a communal latrine, and gather in groups to scratch,
nibble-groom themselves and one another, scent-mark, play, and socialize for c.
15 minutes (1 - 95) before beginning the day's foraging. After 2 - 3 hours of
intense feeding, the pack takes a rest break.

On hot days the pack seeks deep shade in a thicket or gully and may rest, with
brief periods of individual local foraging, until late afternoon (16h00). Rain may
delay departure from the den, and afterward send the pack down the nearest
holes. The mongooses return to the den usually within ½ hour of sunset and they
socialize again before retiring at dusk.

The activity pattern of banded mongooses with young of less than 5 weeks old is
different. The pack returns to the den after foraging 2 - 4 hours and thereafter the
animals forage only intermittently in small groups. Usually 1 adult male remains at
the den. Adult males were the guards in 42 of 57 observed cases, and 77% of
the times only 1 adult guarded. Occasionally non-lactating females took the
morning shift, and sometimes a subadult kept an adult company.

FORAGING BEHAVIOR

A traveling pack goes quickly in an undulating file or column, bunching and

hurrying most when forced to cross open spaces (cf. elephants). Following a
zigzag course, The Ugandan packs covered 2 - 3 km (1 - 4) a day, in the more
open savanna of the Serengeti and Kenya Mara, packs range up to 10 km a day.
A senior female is usually the leader. Juveniles, which play more and forage
less, often lag in the rear. Foraging mongooses spread out over an area usually
less than 60 by 40 m and advance slowly to the accompaniment of continuous
churrs, chirps, and twitters. They scratch up litter like a flock of chickens, poking
their noses into every opening, turning over stones and dung.

The front claws are used to extract prey from openings too narrow for their
snouts and to dig up millipedes, beetle larvae, and such sniffed out underground.
Earwigs, caterpillars, millipedes, big spiders, toads, scorpions, slugs, and snails
are given a shake, then repeatedly pawed and rolled with the front feet to remove
stings, bristles, or noxious secretions. Large millipedes and beetles, dung balls,
snails, and large eggs may be smashed by catapulting them between the
hindlegs (fig. 19.27). Each mongoose resists attempts to share treasures such
as an ant nest or a large beetle, jumping at thieves with angry squeals and
growls. But since any individual that uncovers a bonanza can't refrain from
uttering excited twitters and churrs, food sharing is unconsciously promoted (as in
hyaenas). Thus, all 15 members of a pack homed in on a pile of elephant dung
loaded with dung beetles after the mongoose that found them blurted the news.

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POSTURES AND LOCOMOTION

See family introduction.

SOCIAL BEHAVIOR: COMMUNICATION

Vocal Communication

Churring, grading from a low grunt to a high twitter (contact call); a strident churr
or chitter (alarm signal); a low growl, explosive chattering or squealing (threat and
anger, cf. suricate clucking); whining (a version of the contact call, uttered during
courtship); low purring (contentment).

The repertoire of young mongooses is similar but higher-pitched.

Olfactory Communication

Banded mongooses mark the ground and objects in an anal-drag. At highest

intensity, the rear legs are raised and the full weight rests on the rump. The
whitish musk is deposited in small quantities, primarily around dens and also at
water holes, where mongooses like to rub and roll in damp soil (possibly to
enhance their odor, especially in dry weather). Males reportedly squirt a yellowish
secretion (urine?) over small young, and individuals also squirt objects while
treading.

AGONISTIC BEHAVIOR

Dominance/Threat Displays

Standing with foreleg over subordinate's shoulder and biting the nape (which may
lead into friendly nibble-grooming); threat gaping; sidling stiff-legged around
opponent with weight on hindlegs, hair bristling; ritualized chasing: following
fleeing opponent in a smooth, scurrying run, tail dragging along ground and
rustling in the litter.

Defensive/Submissive Displays

Sudden short rushes, ending with explosive spitting, backing attack; crouching,
lying on side (infrequent).

Displacement Activities

Digging and scent-marking.

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REPRODUCTION

Reproduction is synchronized within but not between packs. Nevertheless, most

births occur during the rains. Several females come into oestrous at once, usually
within 1 week after littering, and mate with several different males during a 6-day
oestrous. Females may begin breeding at c. 11 months and have up to 4 young.
Gestation is about 2 months and a pack may produce up to 4 litters a year.
Probably under half of all juveniles survive the first 3 months.

SEXUAL BEHAVIOR

Vigorous chasing and play mark the early stages of courtship. The males' anal
glands secrete copiously and may become enlarged. A courting male holds his
tail raised and coats the female with secretion between mounting attempts, while
circling, nuzzling, and pushing with his head. The female also marks her suitors.
During a 10-minute copulation, the male clasps the female's waist and touches
her neck with open mouth.

PARENT/OFFSPRING BEHAVIOR

The mean number of lactating females in the 5 Mweya Peninsula packs was 2.4;
4 females with a total of 12 pups was the maximum. As in lions, the young are
suckled communally, and all pack members play with, groom, and transport
(with head or skin grip) the babies. Baby-sitting frees mothers to go foraging,
which they invariably do in the mornings. Judging from captive animals, males
may also play a major role in socializing and training the young to forage. During
the second month, one father played twice as often with the juveniles as the
mother, actively soliciting play by lying down and head-rolling or scratching at
objects; later he stimulated the kittens to hunt by scratching at a food source, or
by holding food in his mouth while rolling around squeaking and churring.

Banded mongooses' eyes open by the ninth day, and beginning at 3 - 4 weeks
they leave the den on short afternoon foraging excursions. By 5 weeks, pups
accompany the pack when it leaves the den each morning, and by 6 weeks they
have acquired their adult coats.

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ANTIPREDATOR BEHAVIOR

Low-sit and high-sit alert posture, hair sleeked; alarm chirping, rushing to cover,
mobbing attack.

The mobbing attacks of banded mongooses are so impressive that even

animals as formidable as servals and large dogs may be intimidated, not to
mention lesser foes such as jackals, eagles, vultures, and herons.

Packs have been known to mob bushbucks, geese, and other harmless
creatures somehow perceived as potentially dangerous. The combination of
close clustering and writhing while advancing with rearing heads (as different
mongooses stand up and peer or threaten), and while growling, churring, spitting,
and snapping, can suggest the approach of a single large and relentless
adversary.

When alarmed away from cover by a member's churring, a bird's alarm call, or an
antelope's snort, the pack immediately clusters, with the young in the center.
Mutual defense extends even to the rescue of members captured by predators.
Thus, an alpha male climbed a tree where a martial eagle had alighted to eat an
adult male it had caught and made the eagle drop its prey, which survived the
ordeal.

SOURCES

Ewer 1973, Kingdon 1977, Neal 1970, Pienaar 1964, Rood 1974, Rood 1975,
Rood 1983b, Rood 1986, Rosevear 1974, Simpson 1964, Smithers 1971, Viljoen
1980.

Banded Mongoose © WildlifeCampus