Galerella

Galerella is a genus of the mongoose family (Herpestidae) native to Africa and commonly called the slender mongooses.[1]

Galerella[1]
A slender mongoose (Galerella sanguinea) in Etosha National Park
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Carnivora
Suborder: Feliformia
Family: Herpestidae
Genus: Galerella
Gray, 1864
Galerella ranges
  G. sanguinea



There are four or five species in this genus, with more than 30 subspecies.

Four of the species have long been established:[1]

ImageNameDistribution
Angolan slender mongoose G. flavescensAngola and Namibia
Somalian slender mongoose G. ochraceaSomalia
Cape gray mongoose G. pulverulenta (Wagner, 1839)[2] South Africa, Lesotho and southern Namibia
Slender mongoose Galerella sanguineasub-Saharan Africa
Black mongoose G. nigrataAngola and Namibia

A recent addition is the black mongoose G. nigrata, which now is considered a separate species by many scientists, following genetic analysis. It was previously seen as a variant of Galerella sanguinea.[3]

References

  1. Wilson, D.E.; Reeder, D.M., eds. (2005). "Galerella". Mammal Species of the World: A Taxonomic and Geographic Reference (3rd ed.). Johns Hopkins University Press. ISBN 978-0-8018-8221-0. OCLC 62265494.
  2. Wagner, J.A. (1839). "Über die Verwandtschafts-Verhältnisse der Pharaonsratte". Gelehrte Anzeigen der Königlich Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften zu München. 9 (183): 425–429.
  3. Tromp, S. (2007). "Introducing the black mongoose" (PDF). University of Queensland. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2014-08-12.


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