Ring-Tailed Mongoose (Galidia elegans): A Red-Bodied, Striped-Tail Carnivore of Madagascar

Zoologists call the ring-tailed mongoose Galidia elegans. The genus name comes from a myth preserved by poet Publius Ovidius Naso (March 20, 43 B.C. – A.D. 18) in Book IX of Metamorphoses (Metamorphoseon libri). The story deals with the golden-tinted redhead serving girl Galanthias (Γαλινθιάς) whom super-goddess Hera turns into a weasel for ensuring the birth of super-hero Heracles to Alcmene and super-god Zeus. The species name derives from the Latin adjective ēlegāns for “elegant.” The scientific name is joined by such common names as:

• Malagasy ring-tailed mongoose and ring-tailed mongoose in English;
• Mangouste à queue annelée (“mangoose with ringed tail”) in French;
• Vontsira mena (“red weasel”) in Malagasy.

The plural forms for mongoose include:

• Mongaggle;
• Mongeese;
• Mongooses.

Researchers currently acknowledge three subspecies for the ring-tailed mongoose:

• Galidia elegans elegans in eastern Madagascar;
• G.e. dambrensis in northern Madagascar;
• G.e. occidentalis in central and western Madagascar.

Membership in one subspecies over another answers to differences in geographical distribution and variations in body color.  All subspecies nevertheless are recognizable by:

• Bushy, long, raccoon-like tail with 4 – 6 dark bands;
• Long, slender body;
• Rounded head with pointed snout and rounded small ears;
• Short legs;
• Webbed feet with smoothly hairless food pads and non-retractile short claws.

Chestnut, dark red, deep red-brown, and russet dominate as color options for body and tail. Black or brown prevails as possible feet, leg and ring-band colors. Olive tinges the chest, head, and throat.

Mating seasons, which are hypothesized as conducted monogamously, begin in April and end in November. Gestation periods can last 52 – 91 days. Each mother delivers one newborn -- who looks like a miniature adult -- between July and February. Three hundred and sixty-five (365) days distance each litter until each set of parents typically has a total of 3 offspring. Offspring exhibit birth weights of 1.76 ounces (49.9 grams) and weaning weights of 6.44 ounces (182.62 grams). They experience the joy of taking their first steps 2 weeks after birth. If the mother approves, the father first interacts with the latest addition to the family after the most recent offspring completes 1 month in the maternally-dug birthing-burrow.

Each newborn achieves physical maturity -- in terms of adult shapes and sizes – a year after birth. But offspring do not leave the family unit for another year. They enjoy traveling around during the day in family groups typically configured as:

• Father;
• Mother;
• 3 “sub-adults.”

But they also have to dominate an extensive set of vocalizations, such as:

• Growling during shriek-filled disagreements;
• Grunting against predatory intrusions and territorial invasions;
• Miaowing about successful foraging;
• Riveting, directionally and frog-like, about casualty-less, cohesive forays.

They additionally keep busy at refining such survival skills as:

• Digging night-time burrows;
• Identifying nocturnally habitable tree cavities;
• Navigating rivers and streams;
• Rubbing anal scent gland emissions against logs, rocks, and vegetation;
• Scaling trees and vines.

At age 2, offspring attain sexual maturity. They depart from the arboreal and terrestrial shelters of parents and younger siblings to start their own families on home ranges typically sized 0.077 square miles (0.2 square kilometers). They display the adult dimensions of:

• 12.5 – 15 inches (31.75 – 38.1 centimeters) in head-and-body length;
• 10.6 – 12.6 inches (26.92 – 32 centimeters) in tail length;
• 24.69 – 31.75 ounces (700 – 900 grams) in weight.

They emerge daily in small groups formed by peers to:

• Exercise;
• Explore;
• Forage;
• Groom;
• Play;
• Socialize.

Newly-independent offspring generally face the lesser challenge of fewer mouths to feed. It still may be a challenge to locate:

• Bird eggs;
• Fish (especially freshwater crayfish);
• Frogs;
• Insects;
• Reptiles;
• Small mammals (especially tenrecs).

Independence can be succeeded by abbreviated lifespans or lowered standards. For example, specialists consider the typical lifespan for a ring-tailed mongoose as maxxing-out at about 6 – 7 years in the wild and 13 years in captivity. Agro-industry, competition, predation, and tradition contribute to lowering ring-tailed mongoose life expectancy and total population. The beauty of Malagasy space and the diversity of insular resources drive and sustain a host of cultural, economic and recreational endeavors. But clearing agricultural land and felling forest trees fragment and reduce habitats that historically support Madagascar’s diverse wildlife. They jumble predator and prey into closer quarters. They minimize traditional hiding-places for eluding local tribespeople ritually-bound upon obtaining the ring-tailed mongoose’s fur, meat and tail.

Arboreal options, daytime schedules, ground control, and joyous omnivorousness act as key factors in the sustainability of the ring-tailed mongoose. The Malagasy ringtail adapts to many woody configurations:

• Dry deciduous forests;

• Forest edges near slash-and-burn agro-industrial sites;

• Forested humid lowlands;

• Primary and secondary-growth woodlands;

• Wooded slopes.

Madagascar's ring-tailed mongoose appreciates wooded altitudes between 4,921.26 and 6,561.68 feet (1,500 and 2,000 meters). But elevations from sea level upwards are acceptable as long as arboreal lifestyles, daylight errand-running, ground access, and judicious omnivory continue unobstructed. The ring-tailed mongoose cooperates by compromising over food sources. For example, the Malagasy ringtail digests “people food” discarded by campers in primary forests. Any famished ring-tailed mongoose even may raid agro-industry- and village-raised chickens.

But opportunistic mealtimes and terrestrial opportunities ultimately are environmentally non-negotiable. The ring-tailed mongoose's obligate omnivousness and terrestrialism contribute to environmental balance. Opportunistic diets facilitate:

• Population control;

• Soil structure;

• Understory well-being.

For example, the ring-tailed mongoose has to control claw and dental overgrowth through digging and gnawing. Regular commitment to building burrows is conducive to aerated, infiltrated and percolated soil pore spaces. Steady consumption of subterranean-, surface- and vegetation-dwelling organisms keeps pests in check. It lets plant roots and soil food web members access nutrients either inaccessible for being insoluble or unavailable for being inside arthropods. Timely coordination of eliminating swallowed seeds with optimal germination locations and times makes it likelier that Madagascar's future will remain lushly verdant.

The year 1837 can be considered felicitous for Malagasy ringtails. Isidore Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire (December 16, 1805 – November 10, 1861) completed their analysis and classification. The Paris-born zoologist excelled at:

• Mathematics;

• Medicine;

• Natural history.

He expounded:

• Acclimatization, or adaptations of native and naturalized animals and plants;

• Ethology, or animal behavior in nature, not laboratories;

• Teratology, or expected and unexpected animal growth patterns.

His legacy is refined by nature-lovers and professionals who sustain the ring-tailed mongoose's researchable, viewable presence in collections worldwide and in such Malagasy protected areas as:

• Amber Mountain, Andohahela, Ankarana, Bemaraha, Mantadia, Marojejy, and Ranomafana National Parks;

• Analamazoatra Special Reserve;

• Berenty Private Reserve;

• Tsingy de Bemaraha Nature Reserve.

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Madagascar Exhibit, Bronx Zoo, New York: orchidgalore, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Galidia_elegans_1.jpg

I.Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, "Notice," Magasin de Zoologie, d'Anatomie Comparée et de Palaeontologie, ser. 2, vol. 1 (1839), Plate 14: Public Domain, via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/39898360

Ring-tailed Mongoose (Galidia elegans), Madagascar: Jeff Gibbs, CC BY SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Galidia_elegans_001.jpg

Andasibe-Mantadia National Park, Alaotra-Mangoro Region, eastern Madagascar: Frank Vassen, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Lowland_Streaked_Tenrec,_Mantadia,_Madagascar.jpg

architectural medallion, Rue Brancion, former Vaugirard horse market and slaughterhouse, Paris, 15th arrondissement: Reinhardhauke, CC BY SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Paris_15e_Abattoirs_de_Vaugirard_Isidore_Geoffroy_Saint-Hilaire_60660.JPG

Great Tsingy, Tsingy de Bemaraha National Park, Melaky region, northwestern Madagascar: Raymond Ostertag (Zigomar), CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:GrandeTsingy.jpg

ringtail mongoose in habitat: gailhampshire, CC BY 2.0, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/43272765@N04/4346718912/

Ranomafana National Park, southeastern Madagascar: Hardscarf, CC BY SA 3.0, via Encyclopedia of Life @ https://eol.org/pages/999164/media (specific EOL image URL @ https://eol.org/media/29823164)

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