Species profile
About the banded mongoose
Banded mongooses move through the bush as a chattering, constantly communicating unit, nose-down in the litter and never still. The dark bars across the rear half of the back give the species its name and are visible even at a distance.
They are among the few mammals in which almost every female in a group gives birth on the same night, so pups cannot be told apart and are raised communally — one of the most thoroughly studied cooperative breeding systems in Africa.
Life in the wild
Behavior & relationships
Behavior
Diurnal and highly vocal, keeping up a continuous churring contact call. Cracks eggs and hard-shelled prey by hurling them backwards between the hind legs against a rock.
Social life
Troops of roughly ten to forty with no single dominant pair. Births are synchronised across the group and pups are guarded and escorted by adult "minders".
What makes it remarkable
Special features
Synchronised communal birth, and the backward-throw technique used to break eggs and snail shells.
