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New Photographic Record Documents Ruddy Mongoose in Melghat Tiger Reserve

Wild ruddy mongoose looking toward the camera at Tadoba National Park, India
Research · Ecology

A ruddy mongoose (Urva smithii) photographed in Melghat Tiger Reserve in Maharashtra provides new published evidence of the species in the reserve. The observation was made on 19 December 2025 and published on 21 April 2026 in Small Mammal Mail in Zoo’s Print.

Sachin Ranade encountered the mongoose at about 16:30 near a streambed by the Vulture Release Center in the Somthana range. The animal remained in the open for about five minutes despite the nearby vehicle. Ranade identified it as a ruddy mongoose from its characteristic dark tail tip and dark brown legs, features that distinguish it from the similar Indian grey mongoose (Urva edwardsii).

Melghat Tiger Reserve extends across parts of Maharashtra and represents central Indian tropical dry deciduous forest. Ranade noted that ruddy mongoose had been mentioned in a 1992 report covering two decades of Project Tiger in Melghat, but was missing from other publications on the reserve. The new photograph therefore fills a documentation gap rather than demonstrating that the species has newly arrived. A single sighting confirms presence at that place and time, but cannot show population size, distribution within the reserve or whether ruddy mongooses have been continuously present since the older report.

Sources and image credit

  1. Ranade, S. (2026). Photographic record of Ruddy Mongoose from Melghat Tiger Reserve, Maharashtra. Small Mammal Mail, 458. Zoo’s Print, 41(4), 42–43.

Image: Upamanyu Das — wild ruddy mongoose in Tadoba National Park, India, 21 November 2017; illustrative species photograph; cropped; Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0 · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source

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