Stripe-necked Mongoose

About the Stripe-necked Mongoose

The stripe-necked mongoose (Urva vitticolla) is a mongoose species native to forests and shrublands from southern India to Sri Lanka. English zoologist Edward Turner Bennett described this species in 1835. There are two subspecies. U. vitticolla vitticolla is from the provinces of Western Ghats, Coorg and Kerala, and has more of a reddish tint to its fur. The other, U. vitticolla inornata, is found in the Kanara province, and lacks a reddish tint to its fur.

It is rusty brown to grizzled grey, has a stout body and short legs, a black stripe that runs laterally on both sides of its neck. Its short tail is mostly black, but grey at the base. Head to body length is 46–50 cm (18–20 in) with tail length of 32 cm (13 in). Males are larger and heavier than females with the weight of 3.1 kg (6.8 lb). Females weigh about 1.7 kg (3.7 lb).

The stripe-necked mongoose is distributed in the Western Ghats and in Sri Lanka. In 1911, one individual was observed in southern Andhra Pradesh. It is diurnal and feeds on frogs, crabs, mouse deer, black naped hares, rodents, fowl, and reptiles. It generally avoids... Wikipedia →