A slim, long-bodied little predator that looks like someone stretched a cat and shrank it to squirrel size, then set it loose among boulders and dry hills. It lives mainly in southwestern Angola and northwestern Namibia, where the land is hot, stony, and often covered with scattered shrubs and rocky outcrops. This mongoose is small—about the length of a school ruler from nose to rump, with a long, full tail almost as long again—and usually weighs under a kilo, so it’s light and nimble. Its fur color changes depending on where it lives: in some areas, it’s a pale yellowish or reddish brown, while in others it’s a deep chocolate brown or almost black.

For a long time, people even thought the very dark animals were a completely different species called the “black mongoose,” but now they’re understood to be just a darker form of the same species. Whatever the shade, the underside is usually lighter, the tail often ends in a darker tip, and the face has a neat, sharp look with a pointed muzzle, small, rounded ears, and bright, watchful eyes that give it a slightly fox-like expression. This mongoose is a specialist in rocky, dry landscapes. It loves hillsides with boulders, koppies (rocky little hills), and broken ground where stones form gaps, cracks, and ledges.

Instead of digging deep burrows of its own, it uses natural crevices, spaces under rocks, and old holes made by other animals as shelters. These ready-made hideouts protect it from heat, wind, and predators, and also provide perfect ambush points. The Angolan slender mongoose is mostly active during the day, often in the cooler hours of morning and late afternoon, and is usually seen alone, trotting quickly along rock edges with its tail held level or slightly raised.

Distribution

Country

Population est.

Status

Year

Comments

Angola

2015

Namibia

2015