Update of the Egyptian mongoose (Herpestes ichneumon) distribution in Spain

Abstract

The Egyptian mongoose Herpestes ichneumon (Linnaeus, 1758) is the only species of family Herpestidae that occurs naturally in Europe. It was restricted to SW Iberian Peninsula from where it seems to be expanding in the last decades. However, information on mongoose distribution and recent trends in some areas, such as central Spain (e.g. Castilla -La Mancha region), is scarce. With the aim of updating the distribution of the species in Spain, and particularly in this central area, we 1) performed a systematic questionnaire survey to environmental rangers, 2) collected citations from experts, and 3) carried out specific field surveys in some particular areas. Overall, 1,305 citations of the Egyptian mongoose were collected, resulting in 193 new 10x10 km UTM grids with mongoose occurrence in Spain; this extended the Egyptian mongoose distribution to 28.34 % of the Iberian 10x10 km UTM grids. Our results show that the Egyptian mongoose occurs in most of Extremadura, western Castilla -La Mancha and centralwestern Andalucía, with some isolated records in northern areas of Spain. This suggests that the range of this mongoose may be expanding in Spain, although other possible explanations for the new records, such as the lack of previous systematic studies on the species in the allegedly expanding area, could not be fully discarded.

Assessing the distribution of elusive non‐game carnivores: are hunters valuable informants?

“…The Egyptian mongoose was detected by hunters, professionals, or both in 305 out of the 921 existing municipalities in CLM (33.12%). In 216 of those municipalities, the species had been detected by wildlife professionals according to Descalzo et al (2021), and in 264 by hunters (Table 1; Figure 1). For all the study area, the OPA between information provided by hunters and professionals was 85.9%, the PPA was 72.9%, and the PNA was 90.5%.…”

“…Despite this high overall congruence, our analysis reported statistically significant differences between mongoose occurrences provided by both informants, which could be related to hunters reporting the presence of the Egyptian mongoose in municipalities where the species was very rarely detected by professionals. For instance, professionals recorded mongoose observations in fewer municipalities (Descalzo et al 2021) within CLM than did hunters (Figure 1B; Table 1). Most of these additional municipalities were placed in eastern areas of Toledo and Ciudad Real provinces, and in some areas of the eastern provinces of CLM (Figure 1B).…”

“…We compared the distribution of mongoose records provided by hunters who identified the species correctly and wildlife professionals at the municipality scale in the following spatial frameworks: all CLM; the core area, which we considered to be within Toledo and Ciudad Real provinces according to previous distribution maps (Descalzo et al 2021); and the new area apparently colonized by the species (i.e., marginal area), which included surrounding provinces such as Guadalajara, Cuenca, and Albacete. We analyzed the agreement between both groups of informants in the core area (established area of the mongoose) and the marginal area.…”

Primera cita de meloncillo (Herpestes ichneumon) en la provincia de Alicante (E España)

“…1 La distribución europea del meloncillo Herpestes ichneumon (Linnaeus, 1758) se limita exclusivamente a la península ibérica, y hasta hace unos pocos años a su cuadrante suroccidental (Palomares 2007). Diversas observaciones y datos procedentes de otras localidades más alejadas de esta área conocida apuntan a una expansión reciente de la especie hacia el norte y este (Talegón & Parody 2009, Balmori & Carbonell 2012, González-Broco et al 2016, Palomares 2017, Alarcos 2018, Palomares & Román 2020, Descalzo et al 2021.…”

“…En Castilla-La Mancha Díaz-Ruiz et al (2019) identifican zonas de posible expansión en la provincia de Albacete, donde existen condiciones ambientales favorables. Según el trabajo más reciente publicado sobre la distribución del meloncillo en España, la especie es citada en varias cuadrículas UTM 10x10 aisladas de las provincias de Guadalajara, Cuenca, Albacete y existe una cita en la provincia de Valencia, lo que ampliaría su presencia hacia el este peninsular (Descalzo et al 2021). Recio & Virgós (2010) indicaban la idoneidad para la especie de algunas zonas del centro y norte de la provincia de Alicante, así como del sur de la de Valencia.…”