Red List of South African Species

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Least Concern (LC)
Assessors: Jason Gilchrist Christopher Stuart Mathilde Stuart Emmanuel Do Linh San
Contributors: Michael Hoffmann
Reviewers: Jason Gilchrist Christopher Stuart Mathilde Stuart Emmanuel Do Linh San

Rationale (Changed due to Same category and criteria)

The Banded Mongoose is listed as Least Concern as, although its distribution is restricted to the northeast of the assessment region, it is generally common in suitable habitat and is present in several protected areas. There are no major threats that could cause range-wide population decline. Accidental persecution through poisoning, controlled burning, and infectious disease may lead to local declines, whilst wildlife ranching might have a positive effect by conserving more suitable habitat and connecting subpopulations.

Regional population effects: Dispersal across regional borders is suspected as the range extends widely into Mozambique and is continuous into southeastern Botswana and southern Zimbabwe, and the species is not constrained by fences.

Distribution

This species is distributed widely in sub-Saharan Africa from Senegal and Gambia to Ethiopia, Eritrea and Somalia, and south to about 31° in South Africa. It has been recorded to 1,600 m asl. in Ethiopia (Yalden et al. 1996). Although fairly widespread in southern Africa, M. mungo appears to be rare in West Africa. Its relative scarcity in West Africa may be due to niche overlap with its congener, the Gambian Mongoose (M. gambianus), endemic to West Africa and reported to occupy similar habitat and have a similar diet (Cant & Gilchrist 2013; van Rompaey & Sillero-Zubiri 2013).

Within the assessment region, Banded Mongooses occur in bushveld in Limpopo Province, Mpumulanga, Gauteng, North West Province, and KwaZulu-Natal bushveld and South Coast. They are also present as an apparently isolated population in the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park, centred on the Nossob River, Northern Cape Province (C. Stuart & M. Stuart pers. obs. 2000). It is possibly linked to either the northern or eastern population, but information is lacking. Although uncommon, the species also occurs in Swaziland (Monadjem 1998).

Population trend

Trend

Recorded densities vary widely between habitats and locations. In South Africa, Maddock (1988) estimated population density in Vernon Crookes Nature Reserve (KwaZulu-Natal) at 2.4 individuals / km2. On the Serengeti plains (Tanzania), density was estimated as 2.2 individuals / km2 (Waser et al. 1995). By contrast, a population in Queen Elizabeth National Park (Uganda) was reported to live at higher densities, averaging 18 individuals / km2 (Cant & Gilchrist 2013). Generation length is estimated to be 4.3 years (Gilchrist & Do Linh San 2016).

Threats

There are no major current threats to this species.

Wildlife ranchers do not persecute Banded Mongooses directly, but some animals may be killed as bycatch in control programmes of damage-causing animals (DCAs), especially where poison baits are in use. Impact, however, is likely minimal.

Like small mammals, Banded Mongooses may be affected by controlled burning via changes to habitat structure and therefore food availability and predation risk. Research on small mammals has shown that the population effect of fire can be negative or positive (it is species specific; Yarnell et al. 2007). Mongooses may escape fire by using their subterranean dens or termitaria (as for the Short-snouted Elephant Shrew Elephantulus brachyrhynchus; Yarnell et al. 2008) and then may benefit from increased invertebrate availability, firstly via the burn, and subsequently via the fresh growth attracting insects. It is notable that data on fire impact on E. brachyrhynchus and the Lesser Red Musk Shrew (Crocidura hirta), two insectivorous small mammals, indicate no significant impact of controlled burns on survival (Yarnell et al. 2007, 2008). Fire impact on Banded Mongoose has not yet been quantified.

Banded Mongooses can be susceptible to infectious disease, including human pathogens (Alexander et al. 2002, 2010).

Uses and trade

This species is not known to be used or traded in any form in the assessment region. Consumption of Banded Mongoose meat has been recorded in Botswana (Jobbins et al. 2013) and Mozambique (Fusari & Carpaneto 2006), but is not known within the assessment region.

Wildlife ranching may have a positive effect on this species by conserving more suitable habitat (e.g. Cousins et al. 2008, with research in southern Africa suggesting that intensive livestock farming can degrade natural habitat, e.g. Dougill et al. 2006) and possibly helping to connect subpopulations. More research needs to be carried out, however, to determine this relative to livestock farms.

Conservation

The Banded Mongoose has been recorded in many national parks and provincial and private nature reserves, as well as on game ranches in six of the nine South African provinces, and occurs in proximity to villages and towns.

Recommendations for land managers and practitioners:
  • Minimise use of non-selective control methods (e.g. poison) for DCAs.
  • Private landowners should ensure that they do not burn the land too frequently and that termite mounds are conserved.
  • Create conservancies to protect and connect favourable habitat.
  • Limit exposure to human pathogens, including TB, e.g. by restricting mongoose access to garbage pits and human excrement.
Research priorities: This is one of the few African small carnivore species which has been relatively well studied (see review in Cant & Gilchrist 2013). However, the majority of behavioural ecology research is derived from Uganda with disease monitoring from Botswana. The following research topics will assist in gathering conservation-relevant information:
  • Long-term monitoring of (some) subpopulations.
  • Evaluation of relative impact of wildlife ranching on habitat and populations.
  • Documenting the degree to which controlled burning impacts on population levels.
  • Disease evaluation in southern African populations
Encouraged citizen actions:
  • Report sightings on virtual museum platforms (for example, iSpot and MammalMAP), especially outside protected areas. As confusion with Suricates (and other mongoose species) is possible, a photograph is required for confirmation of identification, especially when sightings are made in areas where the distribution ranges of both mongoose species overlap.
  • Limit Banded Mongoose access to garbage pits and human excrement.

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