Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Home range and use of residential gardens by yellow mongoose Cynictis penicillata in an urban environment

  • Published:
Urban Ecosystems Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Urban areas provide small carnivores with an abundance of resources and reduced predation risk, resulting in higher population densities. Urban animals tend to have greatly reduced home range sizes in response to increased resource availability. We investigated the home range size of yellow mongooses Cynictis penicillata in an urban area and determined whether their home ranges overlapped with human residential areas. We studied the home range sizes of 8 collared and GPS tracked individuals in the Meyersdal Nature Area in South Africa; an area divided into two residential wildlife estates (4 individuals per estate): an Eco-Estate that was a built up residential area interspersed with natural areas; and a Nature Estate with reduced contact between animals and human residential areas. We used three methods to calculate home range size, namely Minimum Convex Polygon, Kernel Density Estimates and Local Convex Hull. Home range size was slightly larger in the Nature Estate, and male home ranges were larger than those of females. Compared to previous studies, home range sizes were considerably smaller in our study. Seasonal variation in home range could not be statistically compared, but, similar to non-urban populations, we observed smaller home range sizes during the breeding season (winter and spring) and larger sizes during the non-breeding season (autumn and summer). The overlap of home ranges with residential areas, and the record of multiple GPS fixes of tracked individuals within human residential gardens, was evident in both estates but to a greater extent in the Eco-Estate. Seasonal overlap with residential areas was greatest during autumn and winter. We showed that yellow mongooses modify their home ranges in response to urbanisation, which might be a consequence of abundant and easily accessible available resources, particularly during colder periods.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Adam AMA, Rudolf K, Viliam P (2015) Differences in evaluation of three different approaches in home range sizes of red deer Cervus elaphus in Western Carpathians. For J 61:12–18

    Google Scholar 

  • Balmforth ZE (2004) The demographics, spatial structure and behaviour of the yellow mongoose, Cynictis penicillata, with emphasis on cooperative breeding. Doctoral dissertation, University of Sussex

    Google Scholar 

  • Bateman PW, Fleming PA (2012) Big city life: carnivores in urban environments. J Zool 287:1–23

    Google Scholar 

  • Blaum N, Rossmanith E, Fleissner G, Jeltsch F (2007) The conflicting importance of shrubby landscape structures for the reproductive success of the yellow mongoose (Cynictis penicillata). J Mammal 88:194–200

    Google Scholar 

  • Boyle S.A, Lourenço WC, Da Silva LR, Smith AT (2009) Home range estimates vary with sample size and methods. Folia Primatol 80:33–42

  • Calenge C (2006) The package adehabitat for the R software: a tool for the analysis of space and habitat use by animals. Ecol Model 197:516–519

    Google Scholar 

  • Cavallini P (1993) Spatial organization of the yellow mongoose Cynictis penicillata in a coastal area. Ethol Ecol Evo 5:501–509

    Google Scholar 

  • Chirima GJ, Owen-Smith N (2017) Comparison of kernel density and local convex hull methods for assessing distribution ranges of large mammalian herbivores. T GIS 21:359–375

    Google Scholar 

  • Cronk NE, Pillay N (2018) Food choice and feeding on carrion in two African mongoose species in an urban environment. Acta ethol 21:127-136

  • Cronk N, Pillay N (2019a) Dietary overlap of two sympatric African mongoose species in an urban environment. Mammalia 83:428–438

    Google Scholar 

  • Cronk NE, Pillay N (2019b) Flexible use of urban resources by the yellow mongoose Cynictis penicillata. Animals 9(7):447

    Google Scholar 

  • Dahle B, Støen OG, Swenson JE (2006) Factors influencing home-range size in subadult brown bears. J Mammal 87:859–865

    Google Scholar 

  • Fuller TK, DeStefano S, Warren PS (2010) Carnivore behavior and ecology, and relationship to urbanization. In: Gehrt SD, Riley SPD, Cypher BL (eds) Urban carnivores: ecology, conflict, and conservation. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, Maryland, USA, pp 13–19

    Google Scholar 

  • Gaston KJ, Warren PH, Thompson K, Smith RM (2005) Urban domestic gardens (IV): the extent of the resource and its associated features. Biodivers Conserv 14:3327–3349

    Google Scholar 

  • Gehrt SD, Fritzell EK (1997) Sexual differences in home ranges of raccoons. J Mammal 78:921–931

    Google Scholar 

  • Gehrt SD (2007) Ecology of coyotes in urban landscapes. In: wildlife damage management conferences proceedings (paper 63), University of Nebraska, Lincoln, USA

  • Gehrt SD, Anchor C, White LA (2009) Home range and landscape use of coyotes in a metropolitan landscape: conflict or coexistence? J Mammal 90:1045–1057

    Google Scholar 

  • Genovesi P, Sinibaldi I, Boitani L (1997) Spacing patterns and territoriality of the stone marten. Can J Zool 75:1966–1971

    Google Scholar 

  • Germain E, Benhamou S, Poulle ML (2008) Spatio-temporal sharing between the European wildcat, the domestic cat and their hybrids. J Zool 276:195–203

    Google Scholar 

  • Getz WM, Fortmann-Roe S, Cross PC, Lyons AJ, Ryan SJ, Wilmers CC (2007) LoCoH: nonparameteric kernel methods for constructing home ranges and utilization distributions. PLoS One 2:e207

    PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Gilchrist JS, Otali E (2002) The effects of refuse-feeding on home-range use, group size, and intergroup encounters in the banded mongoose. Can J Zool 80:1795–1802

    Google Scholar 

  • Gould NP, Andelt WF (2013) Effect of anthropogenically developed areas on spatial distribution of island foxes. J Mammal 94:662–671

    Google Scholar 

  • Gregory T (2017) Home range estimation. In: the international encyclopedia of primatology (eds) Bezanson M, MacKinnon KC, Riley E, Campbell CJ, et al. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781119179313.wbprim0177

  • Grinder MI, Krausman PR (1998) Ecology and management of coyotes in Tucson, Arizona. Proceedings of the Vertebrate Pest Conference 18:293–298

    Google Scholar 

  • Grueter CC, Li D, Ren B, Wei F (2009) Choice of analytical method can have dramatic effects on primate home range estimates. Primates 50:81–84

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Harless ML, Walde AD, Delaney DK, Pater LL, Hayes WK (2010) Sampling considerations for improving home range estimates of desert tortoises: effects of estimator, sampling regime, and sex. Herpetol Conserv Bio 5:374–387

  • Hemson G, Johnson P, South A, Kenward R, Ripley R, Macdonald D (2005) Are kernels the mustard? Data from global positioning system (GPS) collars suggests problems for kernel home-range analyses with least-squares cross-validation. J Anim Ecol 74:455–463

    Google Scholar 

  • Herr J (2008) Ecology and behaviour of urban stone martens (Martes foina) in Luxembourg. University of Sussex, Brighton, UK, Doctoral Thesis

    Google Scholar 

  • Huck M, Davison J, Roper TJ (2008) Comparison of two sampling protocols and four home-range estimators using radio-tracking data from urban badgers Meles meles. Wildlife Biol 14:467–478

    Google Scholar 

  • Kie JG (2013) A rule-based ad hoc method for selecting a bandwidth in kernel home-range analyses. Animal Biotelemetry 1:13

    Google Scholar 

  • Le Roux A (2007) Communication in the yellow mongooses, Cynictis penicillata. Doctoral thesis. University of Stellenbosch, South Africa

  • Le Roux A, Cherry MI, Manser MB (2008) The effects of population density and sociality on scent marking in the yellow mongoose. J Zool 275(33):40

    Google Scholar 

  • Lichti NI, Swihart RK (2011) Estimating utilization distributions with kernel versus local convex hull methods. J Wildl Manag 75:413–422

    Google Scholar 

  • López-Sepulcre A, Kokko H (2005) Territorial defense, territory size, and population regulation. Am Nat 166:317–329

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Mbatyoti OA (2012) Spatio-temporal ecology of the yellow mongoose Cynictis penicillata in the Great Fish River Reserve. Masters Thesis, University of Fort Hare, Eastern Cape, South Africa

  • McKinney ML (2008) Effects of urbanization on species richness: a review of plants and animals. Urban Ecosyst 11:161–176

    Google Scholar 

  • Murray M, Cembrowski A, Latham ADM, Lukasik VM, Pruss S, St Clair CC (2015) Greater consumption of protein-poor anthropogenic food by urban relative to rural coyotes increases diet breadth and potential for human–wildlife conflict. Ecography 38:1235–1242

    Google Scholar 

  • Nel JAJ, Kok OB (1999) Diet and foraging group size in the yellow mongoose: a comparison with the suricate and the bat-eared fox. Ethol Ecol Evol 11:25–34

    Google Scholar 

  • Nilsen EB, Pedersen S, Linnell JD (2008) Can minimum convex polygon home ranges be used to draw biologically meaningful conclusions? Ecol Res 23:635–639

    Google Scholar 

  • Poessel SA, Breck SW, Teel TL, Shwiff S, Crooks KR, Angeloni L (2013) Patterns of human-coyote conflicts in the Denver metropolitan area. J Wildl Manag 77:297–305

    Google Scholar 

  • Poessel SA (2015) Ecology and behavior of coyotes in urban environments at varying spatial scales. Utah State University, Logan, Utah, USA, Doctoral Thesis

    Google Scholar 

  • Powell RA (2000) Animal home ranges and territories and home range estimators. Research techniques in animal ecology: controversies and consequences 1:476

    Google Scholar 

  • R Core Team R (2019) R: a language and environment for statistical computing. R Foundation for Statistical Computing, Vienna

    Google Scholar 

  • Randa LA, Yunger JA (2006) Carnivore occurrence along an urban-rural gradient: a landscape-level analysis. J Mammal 87:1154–1164

    Google Scholar 

  • Rasa OAE, Wenhold BA, Howard P, Marais A, Pallett J (1992) Reproduction in the yellow mongoose revisited. S Afr J Zool 27:192–195

    Google Scholar 

  • Rautio A, Valtonen A, Kunnasranta M (2013) The effects of sex and season on home range in European hedgehogs at the northern edge of the species range. Ann Zool Fenn 107-123

  • Riley SPD, Sauvajot RM, Fuller TK, York EC, Kamradt DA, Bromley C, Wayne RK (2003) Effects of urbanization and habitat fragmentation on bobcats and coyotes in southern California. Conserv Biol 17:566–576

    Google Scholar 

  • Riley SPD (2006) Spatial ecology of bobcats and gray foxes in urban and rural zones of a national park. J Wild Manag 70:1425–1435

    Google Scholar 

  • Riley SPD, Boydston EE, Crooks KR, Lyren LM (2010) Bobcats (Lynx rufus). In: Gehrt SD, Riley SPD, Cypher BL (eds) Urban carnivores: ecology, conflict, and conservation. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, Maryland, USA, pp 120–138

    Google Scholar 

  • Šálek M, Drahníková L, Tkadlec E (2015) Changes in home range sizes and population densities of carnivore species along the natural to urban habitat gradient. Mammal Rev 45:1–14

    Google Scholar 

  • Sanchez JN, Hudgens BR (2015) Interactions between density, home range behaviors, and contact rates in the Channel Island fox (Urocyon littoralis). Ecol Evol 5:2466–2477

    PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Stark DJ, Vaughan I, Saldivar DAR, Nathan SK, Goossens B (2017) Evaluating methods for estimating home ranges using GPS collars: a comparison using proboscis monkeys (Nasalis larvatus). PloS one, 12:p.e0174891

  • Stenseth NC, Lidicker WZ, Lidicker Jr WZ (Eds.) (1992) Animal dispersal: small mammals as a model. Springer Science and Business Media

    Google Scholar 

  • Taylor P.J, Meester J (1993) Cynictis penicillata. Mamm Species 432:1–7

  • Theimer TC, Clayton AC, Martinez A, Peterson DL, Bergman DL (2015) Visitation rate and behaviour of urban mesocarnivores differs in the presence of two common anthropogenic food sources. Urban Ecosyst 18:895–906

    Google Scholar 

  • Walter WD, Fischer JW, Baruch-Mordo S, VerCauteren KC (2011) What is the proper method to delineate home range of an animal using today’s advanced GPS telemetry systems: the initial step. Krejcar O, editor. Modern telemetry, In

    Google Scholar 

  • Walton Z, Samelius G, Odden M, Willebrand T (2017) Variation in home range size of red foxes Vulpes vulpes along a gradient of productivity and human landscape alteration. PloS one, 12:p.e0175291

  • Young A, Márquez-Grant N, Stillman R, Smith MJ, Korstjens AH (2015) An investigation of red fox (Vulpes vulpes) and Eurasian badger (Meles meles) scavenging, scattering, and removal of deer remains: forensic implications and applications. J Forensic Sci 60:S39–S55

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Zumpt LF (1976) The yellow mongoose (Cynictis penicillata) as a latent focus of rabies in South Africa. J S Afr Vet Assoc 47:211–213

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

We are grateful to the environmental management of the Meyersdal Nature estate (Deon Oosthuizen) and the Meyersdal Eco-estate (Odette Campbell) for allowing access to and use of the respective study sites, and assistance with vehicle use. We thank Mr. Calvin Rogers for the assistance with the trapping process, and Dr. Jill Drake for the veterinary assistance with the anaesthetic and collaring procedure of this study.

Funding

Funding was provided by the National Research Foundation (grant number: 87769) and the University of the Witwatersrand.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Animal, Plant and Environmental Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Private Bag 3, Johannesburg, WITS 2050, South Africa

    Nadine Elizabeth Cronk & Neville Pillay

Authors
  1. Nadine Elizabeth Cronk
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Neville Pillay
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Nadine Elizabeth Cronk.

Ethics declarations

All applicable international, national, and/or institutional guidelines for the care and use of animals were followed. Ethical clearance was obtained from the University of Witwatersrand Animal Ethics Screening Committee (2015/08/37/B). While we followed ASM standards when collaring the mongooses and no consequent negative effects were observed, we declare that the collar weight to body weight in our study exceeds acceptable limits. This article does not contain any studies with human participants performed by any of the authors.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Electronic supplementary material

ESM 1

(DOCX 2793 kb)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Cronk, N.E., Pillay, N. Home range and use of residential gardens by yellow mongoose Cynictis penicillata in an urban environment. Urban Ecosyst 24, 127–139 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11252-020-01022-1

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11252-020-01022-1

Keywords

Search

Navigation