Animalia > Chordata > Mammalia > Carnivora > Eupleridae > Galidia > Galidia elegans

Galidia elegans (Ring-tailed Mongoose)

Wikipedia Abstract

The ring-tailed mongoose (Galidia elegans) is a euplerid in the subfamily Galidiinae, a carnivoran native to Madagascar. There is much disagreement about the placement of Madagascar's carnivores, including the ring-tailed mongoose, within the phylogenetic tree. Molecular work by Anne Yoder et al. (2003) reported in the journal "Nature" suggests that the Malagasy Carnivora evolved from a single herpestid (mongoose) ancestor. Ring-tailed mongooses are very agile, and good climbers. They are quite playful and are active during the day. Their habitat consists of humid forests.
View Wikipedia Record: Galidia elegans

Infraspecies

Galidia elegans dambrensis
Galidia elegans elegans
Galidia elegans occidentalis

EDGE Analysis

Uniqueness Scale: Similiar (0) 
7
 Unique (100)
Uniqueness & Vulnerability Scale: Similiar & Secure (0) 
32
 Unique & Vulnerable (100)
ED Score: 15.91
EDGE Score: 2.83
Learn more at EDGE of Existence programme

Attributes

Adult Weight [1]  1.764 lbs (800 g)
Birth Weight [1]  50 grams
Diet [2]  Carnivore (Invertebrates), Carnivore (Vertebrates), Piscivore, Frugivore
Diet - Ectothermic [2]  20 %
Diet - Endothermic [2]  30 %
Diet - Fish [2]  10 %
Diet - Fruit [2]  10 %
Diet - Invertibrates [2]  10 %
Diet - Vertibrates [2]  20 %
Forages - Scansorial [2]  100 %
Female Maturity [1]  2 years
Gestation [1]  72 days
Litter Size [1]  1
Litters / Year [1]  1
Maximum Longevity [1]  26 years
Snout to Vent Length [3]  15 inches (37 cm)
Weaning [1]  60 days

Ecoregions

Name Countries Ecozone Biome Species Report Climate Land
Use
Madagascar dry deciduous forests Madagascar Afrotropic Tropical and Subtropical Dry Broadleaf Forests
Madagascar lowland forests Madagascar Afrotropic Tropical and Subtropical Moist Broadleaf Forests
Madagascar subhumid forests Madagascar Afrotropic Tropical and Subtropical Moist Broadleaf Forests

Protected Areas

Biodiversity Hotspots

Name Location Endemic Species Website
Madagascar and the Indian Ocean Islands Comoros, Madagascar, Mauritius, Seychelles Yes

Prey / Diet

Cheirogaleus major (greater dwarf lemur)[4]
Microcebus rufus (brown mouse lemur)[4]

Prey / Diet Overlap

Competing SpeciesCommon Prey Count
Accipiter henstii (Henst's Goshawk)2
Asio madagascariensis (Madagascar Owl)1
Polyboroides radiatus (Madagascar Harrier-Hawk)2
Tyto soumagnei (Red Owl)1

Range Map

External References

Citations

Attributes / relations provided by
♦ 1de Magalhaes, J. P., and Costa, J. (2009) A database of vertebrate longevity records and their relation to other life-history traits. Journal of Evolutionary Biology 22(8):1770-1774
♦ 2Hamish Wilman, Jonathan Belmaker, Jennifer Simpson, Carolina de la Rosa, Marcelo M. Rivadeneira, and Walter Jetz. 2014. EltonTraits 1.0: Species-level foraging attributes of the world's birds and mammals. Ecology 95:2027
♦ 3Nathan P. Myhrvold, Elita Baldridge, Benjamin Chan, Dhileep Sivam, Daniel L. Freeman, and S. K. Morgan Ernest. 2015. An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles. Ecology 96:3109
♦ 4Predation on Lemurs in the Rainforest of Madagascar by Multiple Predator Species: Observations and Experiments, Sarah M. Karpanty and Patricia C. Wright, Primate Anti-Predator Strategies, Developments in Primatology: Progress and Prospects, 2007, Part 2, 77-99
Ecoregions provided by World Wide Fund For Nature (WWF). WildFinder: Online database of species distributions, ver. 01.06 Wildfinder Database
Biodiversity Hotspots provided by Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund
Abstract provided by DBpedia licensed under a Creative Commons License
Species taxanomy provided by GBIF Secretariat (2022). GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. Checklist dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/39omei accessed via GBIF.org on 2023-06-13; License: CC BY 4.0