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Angolan slender mongoose

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Angolan slender mongoose
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Carnivora
Suborder: Feliformia
Family: Herpestidae
Genus: Galerella
Species:
G. flavescens
Binomial name
Galerella flavescens
(Bocage, 1889)
Angolan slender mongoose range

The Angolan slender mongoose (Galerella flavescens) is a mongoose that lives in southwestern Africa, specifically Angola and Namibia. Other common names include the Kaokoveld slender mongoose, the black mongoose and the black slender mongoose. It lives in the savannah and avoids desert and dense forests. This animal has a long slim body and the males are around 15% bigger than the females. There are three different colour forms, black, dark brown, and yellowish-orange or reddish-brown.

Males do not help in raising the young. The young open their eyes at 3 weeks and leave their mother at around 10 weeks and at 24 weeks get their adult teeth. It has 38 teeth.

Description

The Angolan slender mongoose is a small, slender species with a long, well-furred tail. Males have a head-and-body length averaging 343 mm (13.5 in) with females smaller at 310 mm (12.2 in), the tail in each case being about 340 mm (13.4 in) in length. The skull is moderately broad and the ears are neat and rounded. This mongoose has several different colour forms; most individuals are black or deep brown, but some are reddish-brown to yellowish-orange, the underparts being yellowish-orange and the tapering tail being a similar colour but with a black tip.[2]

Distribution and habitat

The Angolan slender mongoose is endemic to southwestern Africa, its range including southwestern Angola and northwestern Namibia. The animals in Namibia are dark brown or black, while those in Angola are mostly the pale morph. Where the two types abut, in the vicinity of the Cunene River, there are no intermediate colour forms. The natural habitat of this mongoose is rocky outcrops and areas with large granite boulders, and the woodlands and slopes surrounding these features.[1]

References

  1. ^ a b Template:IUCN2008 Database entry includes a brief justification of why this species is of least concern
  2. ^ Kingdon, Jonathan; Happold, David; Butynski, Thomas; Hoffmann, Michael; Happold, Meredith; Kalina, Jan (2013). Mammals of Africa. A&C Black. pp. 304–306. ISBN 978-1-4081-8996-2.