P{ MusrruD & VIvEnnlo CoNSERVATIoN TheNewsletter of the IUCN/SSC Mustelid& ViverridSpecialist Group Number4 April1991 Owston's palm civet (Chtotogale owstont) by H J Adler' This rarepalm civet was photographedior the lirst time in Vietnam Photo Thisnumber was produced with the supportot the "RoyalZoological Society oi Antwerp"'Antwerp, Belgium' andthe ;l\,4etropoliianToronto Zoo", west Hill,Ontario, Canada Mustelid& Viverrid Conservation TheNewsletter of theIUCN/SSC Mustelid Editor-in-chief: HarryVan Rompaey, Edegem, Belgium Editors: MichaelRiffel, Karlsdorf,GermanY Amd Schreiber,Heidelberg, GermanY RolandWirth, Miinchen,GermanY The viewsexpressed in this Newslelterare those of lhe authorsand do not necessanly reflectthose ;f the IUCN. nor fte IUCN/SSCMustelid & vivenid SpecialistGroup We are panicularlygrateful lo Waller Rasmussenfor readingthe manuscriptsand improvingthe Englishstyle. Theaim ofthis newsletleristo offerthe members of theIUCN/SSC M&VSG' andthose who areconcemed wilh mustelidsor/and viverrids, briefpapers' news items' abstmcls' andtitles ofrecen! literature.Al1 readers are invited to sendmaterial to: Mustelid& Viverrid Conservation c/oDr. H. Van RomPaeY Jan Verbertlei,15 2650Edegem Belgium AsPectsof the biologY of the Small grey mongoose Galetellapulaerulenta C.T.STUART llstract Studyarea wassiluated in theVrolijkleid N ureCon- / Tte s.oll .onso ateCalerella ptu l'ntdt: t common-diumal The studv e! -sey rheRob€nson pr.d.tor$roughour m;choiirs limrcd nnse Inrh! pesnr {udv r:.i'dNlllll: servationSlation in fie extremeeastem ponion of i'." .-t"a ,ia .r.^",1 *nr,i" . loo h! r€.. wirhrhe home mges or rourmimals paft ol the Lillle Karoosyst€m Of the 200 ha study|fea I mongmse/125 Karoo. beinsbcrween5hamd36h.inextenr'Theestim.reddensrrvws ot cuhivaiedand unus€df0rmLmd The tugeovertap.Nincrv two percento'lhe l6l sishings some +b h.r consisted hrri thee *asconsidedble wasfonned bv rheKeisers Riv€r' \ eE ol solito r.imlls F@dconsis6 n.lnly ol rnlll mundsJnd insecG Con_ sou$emboundrry of the area pdi'e nores,e presenreaon rheYcllow dongooseC\ni'rirrnn?lk'a behindwhich rises isreep and rockv hillside A taned'oxd divides the study arel rnd e\t€nsivevineyards and orchardsbou'd $e southemsector. The srudy area consisled of low karoid scmbrnd Introduction succulentvegetation on broken,rock-v ouiciops Tbe eastema'nd boundariesabu$ed on to steep.rocky hillslopesThe The Smallgrey mongoose Caterello pulv tlentalFig l) nonhem aresconsisted ol open erodedand overgrazed scrubland' i\ r small.generally solilary, diumal viverrid restrictedin its dis- southem smrll €anhalalleddams were located in thewestemsectorof rnburionto th€Cape P.ovince south oflhe OrangeRiver' Orange Five (Lvnch' sludyare!and one inlhe €asl Only lwo of lhedains held water FreeState, and marginally ifl Natal.Lesotho md N'mibia the rhrouehoutthe ve:r- The iaunaland floral componenls ofih€ area i98L; Stuan. l98l) -been have covere<tin somederail by Sluin (197'l)' Despiteits abundaflce.panicularly in the south-weslem Dafiof irsr;nee. li le altemionhas been given lo thismongoose by Methods r.s."..t *o*"ts. Lvnch (1981) has discussedthe taxonomic 1978and July 1980a live'tapping pro- species3nd limiled aspec$ oI its biologyhave be€n BetweenApril strtusof this thesmall camivore popula- er41. (1983) and Stuan (1981) This eram.ne*as ,rnaenakenlo determine briell,\'examin;d by Crawford on the small behaviourand die! study iion of the studyarea with sp€cial€mphasis $ey oaoeireponsrhe results of a homerange witha mongoo.e.T aPping$as undenakeraL rcgular intencls oiitre tmatl gr.y -ongooseon the VrolijkheidNaiure Conseoa- -:b0 (ingle-door rr3pdrus 'lo rnp( for lo3 dry'r' wrrh (ion Smtion. ror3l;f live'traDs(75x36x16 cm)- Eight traplineswere marked oul and eachli;e consistedof 20 equallvspac€d markers (50 m betwe€n markers).Trapping was undenakenin eachline lof thre€davs every65 days.Six traplin€sran from €astto westand two from nonh!o south( Fis. l) Trapswere baiEd with a blood-basedscent lure andraw meat ln orderlo reducedislurbance lraps were iix€d in the openposilion belween rapping periods All animalstrapped were sexed' aged (juvenile sub-adul! or aduLt),neasured. weighed. marked and releasedEach mon- goosewas marked with numbefedaluminium poultry wing-lags nl,cecclu'e ro rheb,se of escherr' Drreclob'enrrron' ol lree' 'mall rrneinerim:rr' "eremrde on rn rrfegularb3'rs S' r!' ofrhe grei rrt-ongooe *.t. collecredand prey trrgnelr' roentrfiedin the l.borrroryrs de\cribedbv sturd Il98l) Results Hom€ rangeand movemenc A t;l of34 indiuidualsmall grey mongoos€s were tmpped (Fig. 2). narked and released.of which 18 weremale alld 16 two ieJate.ftineen t3as,)of$e animelswere caught in lhefirsl the { monthsoftrapping and a totalof 20 (597o)had been taken bv afier en,tofrhe se"inrirmonth. Onlv 16animals were recaptured a .rr'1iiq. wilh one of the malesb€ing lrapped22 dmes and femr el2 tmes. sufficientrecaptures for estimatinghome range wereonly availabl€lor lwo malesmd two females{Fig 3) Theestablishedhome rlnge sizeswere crlculaled using the ''minimumhome range' meihod (Mohr. 194?) These ranged from 5 hr (ttmale 8) to 16 hr (m,rleC) From the limiledinibnnaiton iI woulds€em that ther€ is consid€rableoverlap m home F;g. L Sm.rllgrey mongooselculerellu putretrten'rr' irrso r(own obtrined rrngeswithin rbenudy ,]Jea as HeryesresPulYetulen^ts) I towards served.Two adul! mongooseswere observedrvnlking eachother on thesame path Borhanimals (A & B) \erc involved otber' in food seuching.erch unawateof rhe Pres'nceof the 'onrrnueshen B en'mate .ropped.delecared and wis sboulI' crmewirhrn 'iglt of e. animalA rri'edrhe hair on rrr':rrl holding A tne uit Lowto the groundand lan at B. with B tuming and chasingi! for approx.l0 m Density ivlrh 3l inai"iard mongooseshaving been marked within per fie studYarea. rhe density was approximatelyone mongoose b€en b ha.Ei;hteen snimrls were lJapPed once onl)' lnd mJvhrve (he non.resiaenr*irhrn fte.rudv arer.or rhevlesnred Io avoid the traos.If thesecnimals are excludedfrom the calculations a res'identpopulation would havebeen 16 animalsand therefore ll one tales inlo oo'sibledensily oi one mongooseper 125 hl accountthat q0 ha of Lheatea consistedof mdJqinJlyulilised habi!a!,lhe aclualdensity would hav€been g'eal€r' Food Smrll grey mongoosescats were dePosi!€d singly' or in walls small,scaneri accumuladonsalong paihways ard ondaln remams Thecontenl of316 scatsis summarisedin TableI Rode 1004o occured in alt ren monttrly samples,mnging from 651oto to species of the content.Of the 43 individualrodents identifi€d oc- level only two. R,rrabdamlspunilio andOtonls unrrllcdtr'ls currea iJl|slenincantnumtr€rs The remaining four rodent speci€s within the identifred were firuch more iimited ifl their disltibulion study area. Discussion of Tbere are few data wilh which to comparethe findings previousesrimrle or homerange srze for capturesof Small grev non- rhr' study.widr onl) one fi"- z. Sou,iuldistribution of firs! r eIal l98J\ Thirwas glesi males:circles: thismoneoo.e having been mlde Cmwlord goosewiftin the study area Trian range . basedoricasual obse*ations of a singleanimal b€lieved to iemales.Tle ninetraplines and topograPhical features are also indicated.Dams and wa€r cou$esare indicaGdby slippledoverlay. The only olher comparablesolihry 'nd diumal vivemd hasbeen sludied, lhe slendermongoose' Gdle/eLla sangutnea longesilinear movement 'ecorcled belween capures that Th€ lo*e rangesizes of 100ha in the Sercngeti Mos! otherrecorded movements be- *lri.n Itua".,itut"a wasby maleC, of 1800m. part was€r' 1973)Kingdon(1977) lhanthis wilh a Naiional in ranzania(Rood & r*""n crprures*"r". ho*ever,considerably less of the is, however,of theopinion lhal in someareas home ranges me3r of 350 m. slendermongoose are considerably smatl€r' and behaviour Socialoreanisation (1979) working on the clos€ly related Small ln- 163sigltings werenade during lhis srudy'of Gorman A;otal of awapunclal|,.sn Fiii found$at males sevenwere of pairsand five dianmongoos€ H?rp?rrPs which 151were of solitrry animals' 39ha and females 22 ha' th€pairs and four of hadamedn hom€ range otapProximarely wereof groupsof threeindividuals. Three of (1955)found that the by one or in u rim . stuayi" fo"rto Rico Pimentel riregroups oi ttrreeconsisted of an aduhaccompanied 1 2 ha resp' samemongoose had hom€ rangesof 0 5 ha and n wherex Tomich(1969) found that ihe smalllndian mongoose b€tween 50 h2 and 200 ha- These opportunisticn'rlure and ffu*uii f,ra no." ranges of Foodsearching appears to be ofan of homerange size appear sodiesserve lo demonsuatethe variability fiis is bom€ou! by the die! analvsisBoth sight and smell Vost wiihin the samespeci€s in dilfer€ntare's' ro play a significantrole in food searching(Pers obs) rrcntion is concenlnt€don sedchinglhe are! al rhe baes oI In thecurreni siudv the small grev rnongoose home ranges with a densil\ wereestimaied lrom belween5 ha and 36 ha and probablygrealer than one mongoos€per 12i ha Onlv on one occasionwas irn aggressiveencounter ob- 1 Solirary vivenids h:rvetwo advmrag€s:exptoitadon of Trble l. Percentageoccunence of differenrfood categori€s from smallroden6 as a tbodsou.ce requires hunting by srealthand is Small gr€y mongoosesca6 rhroughrhe monthsof fie beslaccomplished when the individu.rlhunrs ,rlone. Approxim.uely70i,.. by n1rss.of the prey rakenby small JFMAMJ'ASOND greymongoos€ in lhe srudyarer were venebales_ tn addilion.rhe 2l t0 .16 individualgains an intimareknowledge of its loraging.ang€ lrnd 96 :0 12 I J3 lt 24 13 10 3l 92 38 65 92 6 20 12 26