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Striped-necked mongoose Herpestes vitticollis Bennett, 1835

Distribution

The striped-necked mongoose is confined to southern India, particularly in Western Ghats and other hill tracts from Coorg to Travancore and in Sri Lanka (Pocock 1939, Medway 1978, Prater 1971, Phillips 1984, Corbet & Hill 1992, Mudappa 1998).

Description

It is the largest of the Asiatic mongoose. It is stoutly built with short limbs, invariably distinguishable from other species of mongoose by a black stripe, composed of soft underfurs and pale tips of the contour hair, starting from the back of the ear through the side of the neck, up to the shoulder. The length of the tail is about three-fifth the length of the head and body. General colour varies from grizzled dark brown and yellowish-grey to tawny-red. Three to four inches of the tip of the tail is jet black. Head and body length is between 430 to 530 mm (Pocock, 1939, Phillips 1984, Corbet & Hill 1992) tail 304.5 to 325 mm and weight ranges from 1.36 to 2.73 kg.

Two subspecies are known from India. The typical form H. vitticollis vitticollis Bennett, 1835 from Western Ghats, Coorg and Kerala is characterised by the dominance of chestnut red on its coat and the second H. vitticollis inornatus Pocock 1941 from north Kanara has no red tinge on the upper side of the body.

Behaviour

It is not as common around human habitations as other species of mongoose and is typically a forest dwelling species. It is rarely found far away from water sources. It is often found in swamps and rice fields. This indicates that probably it preys upon frogs and crabs. In Sri Lanka there is record of it preying on mouse deer, hares, rodents, jungle fowl and reptiles (Phillips 1984) Though it is diurnal in habit it is more active during crepuscular period. The litter size is probably two to three.

Conservation status

It is listed in Schedule IV of the Indian Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972, Appendix III of CITES and LR nt during the CAMP Workshop.

| Introduction | Mustelids | Viverrids | Herpestids | 
| Conservation Significance | References |