Recent records of Ruddy Mongoose Herpestes smithii and Brown Mongoose H. fuscus from Kerala, southern Western Ghats, India

R. SREEHARI1 1, R. ANAND1 1,2 and P. O. NAMEER1

Abstract , C. T. FREDY , C. R. ANEESH Herpestes smithii - nar Wildlife Sanctuary, and Brown Mongoose H. fuscus in Parambikulam Tiger Reserve and Eravikulam National Park. All sites lieCamera-trapping in the state of Kerala, and direct in which observation there is recordedapparently Ruddy only oneMongoose previously published recordin Parambikulam of each species. Tiger The Reserve Brown Mongoose and Chin

Keywordsrecords expand its reported altitudinal range to 492–2,032 m. Tiger Reserve : Anamalai Hills, camera-trapping, Chinnar Wildlife Sanctuary, Eravikulam National Park, Herpestidae, Parambikulam

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kw{Klw ]d-¼n-¡pfw ISp-h-mk-t¦-Xw, Nn¶mÀ h\y-Pohn kt¦-Xw, Cc-hn-Ipfw tZio-tbm-Zym\w F¶n-h-S-§-fn 2011-þ12Ifn \S-¯nb ]T-\-§-fn NpW-b³Io-cnsb (Ruddy Mongoose) Nn¶m-dn \n¶pw, ]d-¼n-¡p-f¯p \n¶pw \nco-£W Iymad D]-tbm-Kn¨v Is−-¯p-I-bp-−m-bn. IqSmsX Xhn-S³ Iocnsb (Brown Mongoose) ]d-¼n- ¡p-f¯v t\cn ImWp-Ibpw Cc-hn-Ip-f¯p \n¶v \nco-£W Iyma-d-bn Nn{X-sa-Sp-¡p-Ibpw sNbvXp.

amÀ¤-ZÀinIÄ: slÀ¸Ìv sU, ]d-¼n-¡pfw ISp-h-mk-t¦-Xw, Nn¶mÀ h\y-Pohn kt¦-Xw, Cc-hn-Ipfw tZio-tbm-Zym\w, \nco-£W Iyma-d, B\-asse ]ÀÆ-X-\n-c-IÄ Introduction Ruddy Mongoose India has seven species of mongoose, all in the subfamily Her- pestinae of family Herpestidae. Four are known from Kerala, Ruddy Mongoose is distributed in peninsular India, from the state of Rajasthan in the west to Bihar to the east, and in Sri Lanka Mongoose H. edwardsii, Brown Mongoose H. fuscus, Ruddy Mongooseone of India’s H. smithii southernmost and Stripe-necked states: Indian Mongoose (Common) H. vitticollis Grey Tiger Reserve, a duo of Ruddy Mongooses was photographed (Nameer 2000, Menon 2003). Of these four, Indian Grey Mon- by(Phillips a Bushnell 1984, Infrared Dookia 2013,camera-trap Mudappa (Trophy 2013). In Parambikulam- goose is the most widespread, seen near human habitation and stalled near a stream running through a moistCAM deciduous forest, along forest edges, as well as in the forest interior (e.g. Shekhar and one was sighted near the tunnel entry of the STC-TGl4M) Parambikulam in 2003, D. Mudappa in litt. 2013). While Stripe-necked Mongoose - is seen in most forested areas of the Western Ghats (Mudappa pendent camera-trap images of Ruddy Mongoose were obtained 2013), Brown Mongoose and Ruddy Mongoose have more re- fromreservoir a scrub (Table jungle 1). near In Chinnar the Kootar Wildlife region Sanctuary, (Table 1, Fig.three 2). indeRud- stricted reported distributions, with apparently only a single dy Mongoose looks similar to Indian Grey Mongoose, but can be published record of each species from the State (see below). Re- distinguished by a brown pelage with a rufous tinge, darker feet and black tip to the tail, which is usually curved upwards (Mu- areas in the Anamalai region (Fig. 1) of the Western Ghats re- cordedcent (2011–2012) all four species: small the carnivore records surveys of Brown in various and Ruddy protected Mon- - gooses are presented here (detailed in Table 1). Locations and sistentdappa 2013).with previous All five reportsrecords thatof Ruddy the species Mongoose is largely were diurnal. within Thealtitudes single recorded previously as 440published to 575 report m. All recordsof Ruddy were Mongoose by day, from con altitudes were recorded using a Garmin 72 GPS receiver. The Tableformer 1. Theused survey’s the WGS84 records datum, of Ruddy and Mongoose the latter Herpestes are approximate. smithii and BrownKerala Mongoose (Pillay H. 2009) fuscus is, Kerala,from Chinnar India. Wildlife Sanctuary. Date Location Time Record Alt. (m) Forest type Ruddy Mongoose 4 Jan 2012 Tunnel Entry, Parambikulam TR, 10°24′58.0″N, 76°47′52.8″E 15h20 Direct sighting 541 mdf 13 Mar 2012 Vengoli,Parambikulam TR, 10°24′22.5″N, 76°47′56.1″E 10h26 Camera-trapped 574 mdf 30 Sep 2012 Kootar, Chinnar WLS, 10°21′05.4″N, 77°13′42.6″E 07h15 Camera-trapped 442 Scrub jungle 3 Oct 2012 Kootar, Chinnar WLS, 10°21′01.6″N, 77°14′11.8″E 13h48 Camera-trapped 439 Scrub jungle 5 Oct 2012 Kootar, Chinnar WLS, 10°21′05.4″N, 77°13′42.6″E 06h53 Camera-trapped 442 Scrub jungle Brown Mongoose 21 Sep 2011 Orukomban, Parambikulam TR, 10°24′0.2″N, 76°41′38.2″E 07h50 Direct sighting 492 Evergreen forest 9 Dec 2012 Eravikulam NP, 10°13′24.3″N, 77°04′59.7″E 21h27 Camera-trapped 2,032 Shola* *montane evergreen forest; mdf = moist deciduous forest

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Fig. 1. Locations of the survey’s Ruddy MongooseHerpestes smithii and Brown Mongoose H. fuscus records in the Anamalai landscape, southern Western Ghats, India.

Fig. 2. Camera-trapped Ruddy Mongoose Herpestes smithii from Chinnar Fig. 3. Camera-trapped Brown Mongoose Herpestes fuscus from Eravikulam Wildlife Sanctuary, Kerala, India, 3 October 2012. National Park, Kerala, India, 9 December 2012.

Brown Mongoose conical tail. These records extend the known altitudinal limit of Brown Mongoose in the Western Ghats. The sighting in Pa- Brown Mongoose inhabits forests in the south Indian hill et al. 2008, Mudappa about 200 m lower than the lowest elevation given in Mudap- parambikulam et al. (2008), Tiger while Reserve, the Eravikulamat a recorded National altitude Park of 492 record, m, is rangesprevious at record 700–1,850 from mKerala asl (Mudappa is from Peeramedu, Idukki dis- at 2,032 m, is about 200 m higher than the highest elevation trict2013) (Mudappa and in Sri et Lankaal. 2008). (Phillips A Brown 1984). Mongoose Apparently was sighted the only in given by Mudappa (2013). Parambikulam Tiger Reserve, on a forest road; it disappeared as soon as it was sighted (Table 1). A Brown Mongoose cam- Acknowledgements era-trapped near the Eravikulam Hut, Eravikulam National - Park, was on a Rhododendron arboreum tree, hardly one meter ment for granting permission to carry out the study. Thanks are also from the ground level (Table 1, Fig. 3). The species is clearly dueWe areto the grateful Wildlife to WardenChief Wildlife and Assistant Warden, Wildlife Kerala WardensState Forest of Parambi Depart- identifiable by its mostly uniform dark coloration and thick, kulam TR, Chinnar WLS and Eravikulam NP. We thank Divya Mudappa Small Carnivore Conservation

35 , Vol. 49, December 2013 Sreehari et al. for support while designing the project and useful discussions dur- Nameer, P. O. 2000. Checklist of Indian mammals. Kerala Forest De- ing the study. Our gratitude to R. Suganthasakthivel for helping us in partment and Kerala Agricultural University, Trivandrum, Ker- the preparation of the maps. We thank two anonymous reviewers for ala, India. their valuable suggestions, which have improved the quality of the Manual of the mammals of Sri Lanka, 2nd edn,

Phillips,Sri Lanka. W. W. A. 1984. manuscript. We thank the Kerala Agricultural University for financial- III. Wildlife and Nature Protection Society of Sri Lanka, Colombo,- dasan,assistance Vijayan, and theMurali, Dean, Akhil College Das, ofSachin Forestry, K. Aravind for the and encouragement. Sajeer K. V. ern Ghats, India. Small Carnivore Conservation We received excellent support during the field work from Sreeni Shekhar,Pillay, R. 2009.S. K. 2003. Observation The status of small of mongooses carnivores in in centralthe southern India. WestSmall References Carnivore Conservation 40: 36–40. Dookia, S. 2013. Recent sightings of Ruddy Mongoose Herpestes smithii 1 Centre for Wildlife Studies, 29: 22–23. College of Forestry, Kerala extension of its known range. Small Carnivore Conservation Agricultural University, KAU P.O. 680 656, Thrissur, in Eserna hill range, Jalore, Rajasthan, India: northwest Kerala, India. Menon, V. 2003. A field guide to Indian mammals. 49: 2 Wildlife Institute of India, Post Box #18, Chandrabani, 25–27.Penguin, New Delhi, India. Dehradun - 248001 Uttarakhand, India. Doring Kindersley/ Emails: [email protected], Mammals of South Asia, [email protected], Mudappa,1. Universities D. 2013. Herpestids,Press, Hyderabad, viverrids India. and mustelids. Pp. 471–498 [email protected], in Johnsingh, A. J. T. & Manjrekar, N. (eds) Her- [email protected], [email protected] pestes fuscus IUCN Red List of Threatened Spe- Mudappa,cies D., Choudhury, A., Wozencraft, C. & Yonzon, P. 2008. March 2013.. In: IUCN 2012. . Version 2012.2. . Downloaded on 9

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