An unidentified species of mongoose
11 September
Pictures of an unidentified species of mongoose from Northern Tanzania.
These pictures were taken in December last year during one of our camera trapping surveys in a hunting block due east of Mkomazi. The area was about 30 miles inland from the coast and dominated by relatively thick savanna bushland. The survey turned up the usual assortment of savanna species – impala, buffalo, grey duiker and lesser kudu, but also some species associated with thicker vegetation such as Harvey’s red duiker. And then there are the pictures below…. at first glance we thought that it was a White tailed mongoose, which was quite common in the area, but something about the animal is not quite right. It seems to be a bit smaller than the White-tailed and the ear shape is very different – small and pointed rather than round. Below are two pictures (the only two we got) of the unknown mongoose and two of a White-tailed for comparison. Our guess is that the unknown species might be a Sokoke dog mongoose, which is known mainly from the Sokoke forest north of Mombasa, though there have been a few potential sightings from the Usambara Mountains in Tanzania. The problem is that very little is known about the Sokoke dog mongoose, so finding someone who can identify it for us is proving difficult!
What do you think? Does the ‘unknown mongoose’ look different to you?
First, the unknown mongoose.
For comparison, the White-tailed mongoose
