EPOW - Ecology Picture of the Week

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Mongoose at the Waterhole

Credit & Copyright:  Dr. Bruce G. Marcot
  

Explanation:  Sneaking up on a waterhole in Sinya Wildlife Management Area of northern Tanzania is this lone banded mongoose.  We are not far from Mount Kilimanjaro but still in the hot lowlands.        The larger size, dark tranverse body bands, and black-tipped tail distinguish the banded mongoose from its small and more uniformly patterned cousin, the dwarf mongoose. Banded mongooses (or, surprisingly, mongeese!) occur through much of southern Africa and are typically very social creatures.     Tracks of a banded mongoose (here photographed in Vwaza Marsh Game Reserve, northern Malawi, Africa).  The pen is for scale; mongooses usually use pencils (ha!). This track shows an interesting pattern found in many mammals, big and small: this mongoose had overstepped its front footprint with its hind footprint, resulting in this overlapping pattern. Why is this of interest? It might explain at least some tracks of the most elusive mammal of all ...      And shortly after the mongoose slipped away, the waterhole was attacked by a vortex of Red-billed Queleas.