Habitat preference of large grey mongooses Herpestes ichneumon in Spain

Abstract

By using radio-tracking to analyse habitat preferences of grey mongooses Herpestes ichneumon (Linnaeus, 1758) at the Doñana Biological Reserve, we have distinguished eight habitat types in order of ground cover and vegetation density. Three mongooses (two adult and a young female) were radiotracked on foot at close range by twenty-eight 24-hour periods between October '85 and April '86, as that the habitat occupied at any moment was known. We compared the availability and use of each habitat type by Jacobs index (D). During activity, the mongooses spent most of their time in brambles (BR), 35% of time, and xerophytic scrubland (XS), 27% of time, the habitats with most vegetation and prey density, followed by rushes (RU), hygrophytic scrubland (HS), marshes (MA) and dune hollows (DH). There was no appreciable use of habitat without cover as bare sand dunes (BD) and grassland and bracken (GB). The running speed of mongooses on each habitat type is related to prey type. The nocturnal resting place was in BR (81.0%) principally, followed by XS, HS, DH, and RU (N = 58). The short daytime resting periods or "siestas" were in BR (65 % of the time), followed by XS, HS, DH and RU. Statistical differences between activity, resting habitat use and habitat availability were detected.