SOCIAL SPACING
Courtesy of Marko Laakkonen
Home Range
Banded mongooses utilize home ranges that vary in size from one population to another and that may overlap with other packs. Although home ranges between different packs may overlap, each pack maintains minimal contact with the other group. If direct encounters between packs do occur, they tend to be highly aggressive. This type of behavior is seen during group encounters because of competition between packs for resources. In studies focusing on the effects of refuse-feeding at trash dumps on inter-group encounters, it was found that areas where two groups share the same garbage dump had the highest rate of aggressive encounters (Gilchrist and Otali, 2002). This high inter-group encounter rate can be a result of the two groups vying for food or mates, since extra-group copulations are common between members of different packs.
The average home range size of banded mongooses is about 69 ha (Cant, 2002). Packs in the Ruwenzori National Park have an average home range of 80.4 hectares, whereas packs in the Serengeti may have ranges of up to 4 square kilometers. Within these home ranges, packs occupy core areas that include their den. Banded mongooses actively defend their nesting/mating territory (den) from intruders. Groups that have an abundant food source, such as a trash dump, in their core area have similar size home ranges as non-refuse feeding mongooses, but have a smaller core area in which they frequent. Therefore, food availability is a key factor in influencing core area size within home ranges.
Why do they have home ranges?
Banded mongooses utilize home ranges because their dependence on small animals requires them to travel long distances in order to obtain a sufficient amount of food each day. The adaptation to feeding on small prey is discussed further in “group hunting” under Social Relationships. Insects are plentiful throughout the mongoose habitat, but it would be too energetically costly for mongooses to have a classical territory since the amount of land needed to fulfill their energetic needs would require too much energy to defend and would reduce the amount of time that they would be able to spend foraging. Furthermore, banded mongooses rely heavily on the millipedes and beetles found in the dung of other home range animals, particularly the elephant and buffalo. As a result, packs must travel where these large animals go in order to find the necessary foods.
Why do they have a nesting/mating territory?
The den plays an important role in the survival of the banded mongoose by providing a safe place to return to at night where they can mate and keep their young safe. Banded mongooses spend most of their day foraging and only return to the den to sleep or to care for young. Since banded mongooses spend most of their day foraging all over their home range, they do not need to maintain an expansive nesting/mating territory. The termite mounds that they live in are relatively stable structures with a few entrances. The entrances into the termite mounds are relatively small, approximately 9.25 cm, making it difficult for larger predators to gain access to the mongooses within. Only a few mongooses are needed to keep a watch on the entrances from snakes and other small predators that may be able to enter the den. Although mongooses do not put much investment into the termite mounds, it is still important for them to protect it because predators are always a threat and other packs have a tendency to perform infanticide on non-group members. Defense of a small, safe territory for sleeping, mating, and rearing young is more practical and energetically efficient for mongooses than trying to maintain a classical territory.
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* This web site was completed in partial fulfillment of the requirements for Biology 323, Animal Behavior, at Davidson College in the Spring Semester 2005