Herzig-Straschil, Barbara

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SHORT COMMUNICATIONS NOTES ON THE FEEDING HABITS OF THE YELLOW MONGOOSE CYNICTIS PENICILLATA BARBARA HERZIG-STRASCHIL· Mammal Research Institute, University of Pretoria Accepted: February, 1976. INTRODUCTION The monotypic genus Cynictis is endemic to southern Africa (Lundholm 1955). General remarks on its feeding habits are given by Sclater (1900) and Shortridge (1934). According to Snyman (1940) and Ducker (1965) it is mainly insectivorous but this does not entirely agree with the findings of Michaelis (1972). Hinton & Dunn (1967) following FitzSimons (1919) mention that C. penicillata (G. Cuvier) is inclined to attack vertebrates of medium size such as hares, bigger birds or even new-born lambs. These prey items, • however, seem most unlikely, as other studies e.g. Smithers (1971), Viljoen & Davis (1973) and Zumpt (1968) show that invertebrates form a major part of the diet of this species, although a wide variety of small vertebrates and even carrion will be taken too. Ewer (1973) describes Cynictis as a mixed feeder. In the western Transvaal, South Africa, C. penicillata has a high population density and specimens were collected regularly in 1973 and 1974. As the prevailing belief in this area was that ·Present address: Naturhistorisches Museum, SAugetiersammlung, Burgring 7, Postfach 417, A-I014 Vienna, Austria. Zoologica A/ricona 12(1): 225-256 (1977) Cynictis fed mainly on ground-breeding birds and their eggs it seemed useful to analyse their stomach contents. MA TERIAL AND METHODS Sixty-three C. penicillata were collected in the dry Cymbopogon-Themeda Veld (Acocks 1953; Van Zyl 1965) in the S.A. Lombard Nature Reserve (18 km west of Bloemhof, 25°35 'E/27°25 'S) between April 1973 and August 1974 (Table 1). Nineteen samples came from the area of the Vaal Dam, c. 150 km south of Pretoria, from August 1974. TABLE 1 Monthly samples of 63 Cynictis penicilllzta collected from S.A. Lombard Nature R.eserve near Bloemhof. Samplt sizt 1973 1974 Month 0 7 March 1 0 April 0 S May 12 0 June S 0 July S 6 August 6 0 September 11 0 October 3 0 November 2 0 December Immediately after being shot the animals were measured and weighed and stomach samples were preserved in either 10 per cent formalin or 70 per cent alcohol; skulls were also kept for age determinations (Zumpt 1969). In the laboratory the volume of the entire contents of the stomach was measured and the contents then washed Reproduced by Sabinet Gateway under licence granted by the Publisher (dated 2010). 226 ZOOLOGICA AFRICANA VOL 12 through a sieve. The amounts of the different food items present were estimated visually and split up into the following categories: exclusive, dominant, present. The vertebrate remains were kept for further identifications whereas the remaining residues are referred to as 'termites, locusts, other (or mixed) invertebrates, plants or seeds'. RESULTS c. penicillata is generally diurnal but reports state that it is sometimes active at night. In the S.A. Lombard Nature Reserve animals were observed leaving their burrows well after sunrise: in summer between 08bOO and 09bOO, and in winter around 10bOO. They usually remained in the vicinity of the burrow entrance for some while and basked in the SUD. Accordingly, some of the stomachs collected up to about 10bOO were empty. In the evening they were seen at the latest around 19hOO outside their burrows, but night activity data are not available. The volumes of stomach contents give some idea of the amount of food consumed. The four biggest samples were 185; 118; 110 and 82 ml. Unfortunately it is not known at what time of day these particular animals were collected. Further data on the amount of stomach contents cor-related with time of day are given in Figure 1. Six of the 82 stomachs collected were empty. Most of the full stomachs contained mixed food items (Table 2). Invertebrates in general were found in 66 (86,8 per cent) cases and vertebrate residues in 21 (28,0 per cent). Among the invertebrates, termites (Hodo-tertnes sp.) were the most important: 21 (28,0 per cent) of the samples consisted of termites only and a further 30 (39,5 per cent) contained tepnites among other items. Other mixed invertebrates appeared in 26 (34,2 per cent) stomachs and locusts in 20 (26,3 per cent). The dominance of termites among the food items is also shown by the fact that the four largest samples consisted entirely of termites. In areas with high termite densities C. penicillala was observed to be TABLE 2 Frequency of occurrence (FO) of food items in stomach contents of 76 C. penicillata from S.A. Lombard Nature Reserve and Vaal Dam District. Total Exclusille Dominant Food item FO(%) FO(%) FO(%) Invertebrates, general 66 (86,8) Vertebrates 21 (28,0) Termites 51 (67,1) 21 (28,0) 8 (10,5) Other inverte-brates 26 (34,2) Locusts 20 (26,3) 3 (4,0) 4 (5,3) Mammalia 12 (1S,8) 1 (1,3) 1 (1,3) Aves· 7 (9,2) 2 (2,6) 2 (2,6) Amphibia 6 (7,9) Unidentified 4 (S,3) 4 (5,3) Carrion 2 (2,6) Sunftowerseeds 1 (1,3) 1 (1,3) ·in one case egg yolk only. TABLE 3 Stomach samples of Herpestes sanguineus and Suricota suricatta Species Date collected Food items H. sanguineus 2.7.1973 Termites, locusts, piece offur, 1 Mabuya }laria (Family Scincidae), 12 LygodDctylus copen-sis (Family Gekkonidae). Note that the latter species is arboreal. H. sanguineus 16.9.1973 Termites, locusts, other invertebrates H. SlUlguineus 2.8.1974 Termites, locusts, other invertebrates S. suricalla 18.10.1973 Termites, maggots (without vertebrate remains); pieces of plants Reproduced by Sabinet Gateway under licence granted by the Publisher (dated 2010). ! I 8 J 'S J ~ 1977 SHORT COMMUNICATIONS 227 feeding exclusively on them without looking for other food.. Among the vertebrates, mammals (12: 15,8 per cent) were followed by birds (7: 9,2 per cent) and amphibians (6: 7,9 per cent). Two of the animals had fed on carrion (contents were 80 • 80 40 20 • • • • • • • • • • 0 0900 1100 1300 • regarded as carrion when vertebrate remains plus maggots were found). In one case where fur of C. pelJicillata was present in the stomach, it originated from another individual that had been shot previously. Analysis of cuticular scale patterns of mammal hair indicated that the • • • • • • •• • •• •• • • • • • 1500 1700 1900 Time of day (h) FIGURE 1 Volumes of stomach contents of C. penicillata at different times of day. Each dot represents one measurement. Reproduced by Sabinet Gateway under licence granted by the Publisher (dated 2010). 228 ZOOLOGICA AFRICANA VOL 12 yellow mongoose from the Vaal Dam area had been feeding on Mystromys albicaudtltus (two stomachs), Praomys (Mastomys) natalensis (one stomach) and RhabdiJmys pumilio (one stomach). Identifiable feathers of a juvenile moulting dove, probably the laughing dove, Streptopelia senega-lensis, occurred in a stomach from Vaal Dam, and those of a mousebird, Colius sp., occurred in a stomach from the Bloemhof district. Amphi-bians from the Bloemhof stomachs were re-presented by Tomopterna (Pyxicephalus) deJa-landi cryptotis of the family Ranidae. Five Vaal Dam stomachs contained amphibians, three of them Bufo sp., of which two could be identified as B. garmani. The other amphibian was Tomopterna delalandi. Occasionally C. penicillata also feeds on sun-flower seeds (one stomach was more than half filled with them; see also Zumpt, 1968). Plants were represented in almost all samples and sand in some of them as a trace - probably coincidental contaminants when feeding on invertebrates; sometimes pieces of paper, mealie meal, etc. were found as well. Limited data on stomach contents of two other Viverridae of the Bloemhof area are given in Table 3. DISCUSSION The evaluation of food consumption of wild animals in the field is generally difficult (petruse-wicz & MacFadyen 1970) and should be related to the size of the animal. The average mass of 33 adult male and female C. penicillata in the present study was 763 g; females are generally lighter (i = 673 g; 610 g-825 g, n = 11; without embryos) than males (i = 807 g; 663 g-980 g, n = 22). The large numbers of termites (HodiJtermes &p.) found in 51 (67,1 per cent) stomachs, and the presence of bird remains in only 7 (9,2 per cent) stomachs, does not support the hypothesis that C. penicillata preys heavily on ground-breeding birds (see also Zumpt 1968). No seasonal pattern in the composition of food items from the stomachs obtained from the S.A. Lombard Nature Reserve could be found and these results and those from the Vaal Dam area were therefore compared in Table 4. Invertebrates are the main food item in both cases but the difference in the percentage fre-quency of occurrence of vertebrate items suggests that C. penicilJata is an opportunistic feeder. The data in Figure 1 indicate that C. penicilJata feeds continually throughout its diurnal activity phase, but further data in this regard are necessary. TABLE 4 Comparison of percentage frequency of occurrence of food items of C. penict/lata from two collecting localities. Food Item Invertebrates, general Vertebrates Termites Other invertebrates Locusts Mammalia Aves Amphibia Percentage frequency of occurrerrce Locality S.,A,. Vaal Dam Lombard area N.R. 77,8 89,7 44,4 22,4 77,8 63,8 11,1 41,4 11,1 31,0 22,2 13,8 16,7 6:; 27,81 1,7 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am grateful to Professor J. D. Skinner, Mammal Research Institute, University of Pretoria, for his encouragement and for commenting on the manu-script; Mrs S. Viljoen for her help in the final stage of the work; Mr T. Lock for collecting several samples; Dr A. Kemp (birds), Mr W. D. Haacke (reptiles and amphibians), of the Trans-vaal Museum and Mrs H. Keogh (rodent hair) of the Medical Ecology Centre for their help with the identification; and the Transvaal Division of Reproduced by Sabinet Gateway under licence granted by the Publisher (dated 2010). 1977 SHOR. T COMMUNICATIONS ,22,9 Nature Conservation and the Kulturamt der Stadt Wien (Austria) for their support. REFERENCES "'COCKlI, 1. P. H. 1953. Veldtypes of South Africa. Mem. bot. Sun. S. A/r. 28. Pretoria: Govt. Printer. DOCKER, G. 1965. Das Verhalten der Viverriden. Handb. Zool. (8) 38: 1-48. BWBR, R. P. 1973. The Carnivores. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson. mZSIMoNS, F. w. 1919. The Mtural history 01 South A/rica. London: Longmans & Green. HINTON, H. E. & DUNN, .... M. s. 1967. Mongooses. Their Mtural history and behaviour. Edin-burgh & London: Oliver & Boyd. LUNDHOLM, B. G. 1955. A taxonomic study of Cynictis penicillata (Cuvier). Ann. Transv. Mu.r. 22: 305-319. MICHAELIS, B. 1972. Die Schleichkatzen Afrikas. Saugetier. Mitt. 20: 1-110. PlrI'RUSBWICZ, K. & MACFADYEN, .... 1970. Pro-ductivity 01 terrestrial animals. Principles and methotis. IBP Handbk 13. Oxford & ASPECTS OF PHALLIC MORPHOLOGY OF THE BUSH SQUIRREL, PARAXERUS CEPAPI CEPAPI SAN VIL10EN Mammal Research Institute, Uniwrsity 01 Pretoria Accepted: March, 1976. During a two-year study of the bush squirrel. Paraxeru.r cepapl cepapi, 26 phalli were procesaed according to the method described by Lidicker Edinburgh: Blackwell. SCLATBR, w. L. 1900. The mammals 01 South Alrica, 2. London: Porter. SHORTRIDGB, G. c. 1934. The mammals 01 South West A/rica, 1. London: Heinemann. SMlTHl!RS, R. 1971. The mammals 01 Botswana. Mem. Min. Mu.r. Rlwd. 4: 1-230. SNYMAN, P. s. 1940. Study and control of the vectors of rabies. Onderstepoort J. vet. Sci. Anim.lnd. 15: 9-140. VAN %YL, 1. H. M. 1965. The vegetation of the S.A. Lombard Nature Reserve and its utilisation by certain antelope. Zool. qfr. 1: S5-71. VIUOBN, s. & DAVIS, D. H. s. 1973. Notes on stomach contents analyses of various carni-vores in southern Africa (Mammalia: Carnivora). Ann. Transv. Mu.r. 28: 3S~363. ZUMPT, I. 1968. The feeding habits of the yellow mongoose, Cynictis penicillata, the suricate, Sur/cata suricatta and the Cape sround squirrel, Xeru.r inauris. JI S. AIr. vet. med. Ass. 39: 89-91. ZUMPT, I. 1969. Factors influencing rabies out-breaks: the age and breeding cycle of the yellow mongoose, Cynictis penicillata (Cuvier).JI S.A/r. vet.med.Ass.40: 319-322. (1968) and sketches and measurements were made through a stereo microscope (Viljoen 1975). The bony elements of the penis are divided into three distinct parts (Figure 1): Crest A crest surrounds the greater part of the baculum. This crest is not continuous but c0n-sists of two halves, each half starting antero-ventrally of the anterior tip of the baculum, proceeding immediately to the dorsal surface, and then down three-quarters of the Ieogth of the everted part of the penis. Then it curves to-wards the dorsal mid-line to almost meet the other half. In the youngest anima1s (Class I of Viljoen 1976) the crest is without any bono Reproduced by Sabinet Gateway under licence granted by the Publisher (dated 2010). 

Notes on the feeding habits of the yellow mongoose Cynictis penicillata

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Notes on the feeding habits of the yellow mongoose Cynictis penicillata

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