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Mongooses
Introduces the physical characteristics, life cycle, and eating habits of the mongoose.
Book
Mongooses
During 2019-2020, the Virgin Islands Department of Health investigated potential animal reservoirs of Leptospira spp., the bacteria that cause leptospirosis. In this cross-sectional study, we investigated Leptospira spp. exposure and carriage in the small Indian mongoose (Urva auropunctata, syn: Herpestes auropunctatus), an invasive animal species. This study was conducted across the three main islands of the U.S. Virgin Islands (USVI), which are St. Croix, St. Thomas, and St. John. We used the microscopic agglutination test (MAT), fluorescent antibody test (FAT), real-time polymerase chain reaction (lipl32 rt-PCR), and bacterial culture to evaluate serum and kidney specimens and compared the sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, and negative predictive value of these laboratory methods. Mongooses (n = 274) were live-trapped at 31 field sites in ten regions across USVI and humanely euthanized for Leptospira spp. testing. Bacterial isolates were sequenced and evaluated for species and phylogenetic analysis using the ppk gene. Anti-Leptospira spp. antibodies were detected in 34% (87/256) of mongooses. Reactions were observed with the following serogroups: Sejroe, Icterohaemorrhagiae, Pyrogenes, Mini, Cynopteri, Australis, Hebdomadis, Autumnalis, Mankarso, Pomona, and Ballum. Of the kidney specimens examined, 5.8% (16/270) were FAT-positive, 10% (27/274) were culture-positive, and 12.4% (34/274) were positive by rt-PCR. Of the Leptospira spp. isolated from mongooses, 25 were L. borgpetersenii, one was L. interrogans, and one was L. kirschneri. Positive predictive values of FAT and rt-PCR testing for predicting successful isolation of Leptospira by culture were 88% and 65%, respectively. The isolation and identification of Leptospira spp. in mongooses highlights the potential role of mongooses as a wildlife reservoir of leptospirosis; mongooses could be a source of Leptospira spp. infections for other wildlife, domestic animals, and humans.
Journal Article
Mongooses of the world
Mongooses are a remarkable and fascinating group of small carnivores, with 25 species occurring in Africa and nine in Asia. They live within a wide variety of habitats, from open savannah to dense rainforest, and display an amazing diversity in social behaviour, with both solitary and group-living species. Yet this family is one of the least-known group of carnivores. The general lack of public awareness about most mongoose species, and the scare ecological knowledge of what they need to survive in the wild, are two of the many conservation threats that this group of carnivores faces, which highlights the urgent need to promote an interest in these amazing animals. As well as popularising mongooses, the book will be a valuable source of information on general scientific and conservation topics, such as social behaviour and how the loss of suitable habitats impacts animal species.
Book
Extended and cumulative effects of experimentally induced intergroup conflict in a cooperatively breeding mammal
Conflict between rival groups is rife in nature. While recent work has begun exploring the behavioural consequences of this intergroup conflict, studies have primarily considered just the 1–2 h immediately after single interactions with rivals or their cues. Using a habituated population of wild dwarf mongooses (Helogale parvula), we conducted week-long manipulations to investigate longer-term impacts of intergroup conflict. Compared to a single presentation of control herbivore faeces, one rival-group faecal presentation (simulating a territorial intrusion) resulted in more within-group grooming the following day, beyond the likely period of conflict-induced stress. Repeated presentations of outsider cues led to further changes in baseline behaviour by the end of the week: compared to control weeks, mongooses spent less time foraging and foraged closer to their groupmates, even when there had been no recent simulated intrusion. Moreover, there was more baseline territorial scent-marking and a higher likelihood of group fissioning in intrusion weeks. Consequently, individuals gained less body mass at the end of weeks with repeated simulated intrusions. Our experimental findings provide evidence for longer-term, extended and cumulative, effects of an elevated intergroup threat, which may lead to fitness consequences and underpin this powerful selective pressure.
Journal Article
The jungle book
\"Set in the mystical depths of the Indian jungle, where tigers roam the land and monkeys swing from trees, Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book gets reimagined like never before in this stunning new unabridged edition. Originally published in 1894, the beloved collection of stories includes such favorites as the story of the man-cub Mowgli versus the ferocious tiger Shere Khan, the brave mongoose Rikki-tikki-Tavi, and more. Filled with all-new lush illustrations and exclusive inteactive elements from the award-winning design studio MinaLima\" -- Page [4] of cover.
Book
Segmental concatenation of individual signatures and context cues in banded mongoose (Mungos mungo) close calls
Background
All animals are anatomically constrained in the number of discrete call types they can produce. Recent studies suggest that by combining existing calls into meaningful sequences, animals can increase the information content of their vocal repertoire despite these constraints. Additionally, signalers can use vocal signatures or cues correlated to other individual traits or contexts to increase the information encoded in their vocalizations. However, encoding multiple vocal signatures or cues using the same components of vocalizations usually reduces the signals' reliability. Segregation of information could effectively circumvent this trade-off. In this study we investigate how banded mongooses (
Mungos mungo
) encode multiple vocal signatures or cues in their frequently emitted graded single syllable close calls.
Results
The data for this study were collected on a wild, but habituated, population of banded mongooses. Using behavioral observations and acoustical analysis we found that close calls contain two acoustically different segments. The first being stable and individually distinct, and the second being graded and correlating with the current behavior of the individual, whether it is digging, searching or moving. This provides evidence of Marler's hypothesis on temporal segregation of information within a single syllable call type. Additionally, our work represents an example of an identity cue integrated as a discrete segment within a single call that is independent from context. This likely functions to avoid ambiguity between individuals or receivers having to keep track of several context-specific identity cues.
Conclusions
Our study provides the first evidence of segmental concatenation of information within a single syllable in non-human vocalizations. By reviewing descriptions of call structures in the literature, we suggest a general application of this mechanism. Our study indicates that temporal segregation and segmental concatenation of vocal signatures or cues is likely a common, but so far neglected, dimension of information coding in animal vocal communication. We argue that temporal segregation of vocal signatures and cues evolves in species where communication of multiple unambiguous signals is crucial, but is limited by the number of call types produced.
Journal Article
Age, sex and storage time influence hair cortisol levels in a wild mammal population
The measurement of hair cortisol is increasingly used to understand the effect of natural and anthropogenic stressors on wild animals, but it is potentially confounded by individual, seasonal and sex-dependant variations in baseline cortisol secretion. This study validated an enzyme-linked immunoassay for hair cortisol measurement and characterized its baseline variation in a wild population of Egyptian mongoose. The analysis encompassed individuals of both sexes and all ages, across a range of geographic, environmental and seasonal conditions that the species experiences in Portugal allowing us to account for spatial, temporal and biological factors that contribute to hair cortisol variation. Our results showed that age, sex and storage time had an effect on hair cortisol, but season did not. Hair cortisol was higher in early stage juveniles compared to other age cohorts, in males when compared to females, and decreased with longer storage time. By identifying the factors that influence baseline hair cortisol in this wild population, we establish the basis for its application as an indicator of the effect of natural and anthropogenic stressors.
Journal Article
High-resolution imaging of Hg/Se aggregates in the brain of small Indian mongoose, a wild terrestrial species: insights into intracellular Hg detoxification
Human activities result in the emission of 2000 metric tons of mercury compounds annually. Mercury (Hg) biomagnification has been characterized in marine mammals and predatory fish; however, little is known about mercury accumulation in brains of wild terrestrial species. Elevated Hg content, of 1.27 μg/g wet wt.—found in the brain of wild small Indian mongoose, prompted us to use synchrotron X-ray fluorescence imaging for simultaneous, quantitative mapping of biologically relevant and neurotoxic elements with high spatial resolution. X-ray fluorescence combined with immunohistochemistry revealed ~0.5–1.9 micron Hg-rich aggregates in cells of the choroid plexus and astrocytes of the subventricular wall in the mongoose brain. Hg content within aggregates correlated with selenium. Hg aggregates did not co-localize with lysosomes. The low Hg density inside aggregates indicated diffuse Hg binding to a Se-containing biomolecule, rather than much denser HgSe nanoparticles proposed to form in other species. Our data show the susceptibility of the small Indian mongoose population to Hg pollution and highlight the vulnerability of the brain as an organ targeted by mercury. Data also provide evidence on the adaptation in the form of a Se-based detoxification mechanism sequestering Hg into intracellular aggregates.
Journal Article
Elite leader dwarf mongoose optimization algorithm
Dwarf mongoose optimization algorithm (DMOA) is a recently proposed meta-heuristics, it attracts widely attention due to its effectiveness in solving complex optimization. However, DMOA utilizes roulette wheel selection to evolve the individual, this method may cause the swarm evolving unevenly and the swarm diversity losing rapidly. To overcome the aforementioned weakness of DMOA, this study proposes a two-stage structured elite leader dwarf mongoose optimization algorithm (EL-DMOA). EL-DMOA employs four strategies to improve the performance of DMOA. In the leader stage, The artificial fitness is employed for selecting swarm leader according to the individual’s fitness and state, then the differential operator is adopted to further evolve the selected swarm leaders. In the follower stage, the elite leaders are employed to guide the swarm moving towards the promising area. The crossover operation is employed to enhance swarm diversity and reduce the risk of falling into local optima. The experiments on CEC2017 test suite and real-life application problems show that EL-DMOA performs better than FIPS, DE/rand/1 and four recently proposed meta-heuristics. Employing differential operator to evolve the selected swarm leader can improve the quality of swarm leaders. The proposed two-stage structure can encourage the swarm evolves evenly and efficiently.
Journal Article