Euplerids: The Not-Mongooses of Madagascar

Ring-tailed vontsira

There are around 35 currently recognised species of mongoose, spread between Asia and continental Africa. For the most part, they look fairly similar, with most being instantly identifiable as such. For most of the 20th century, however, they were also thought to live on Madagascar. In the last couple of decades, genetic studies have revealed that the Madgascan species, while related to the mongoose family proper, belong in a group of their own. That's partly because they diverged so far back in time, but also because that group includes some animals that manifestly aren't mongooses.

Today, in order to distinguish what we used to call "Madagascan mongooses" from the real sort, we tend to use the local Malagasy word and describe them as "vontsiras".

Not Leaving Home: Wolves on the Serengeti

There is a popular belief that wolf packs are led by an "alpha male", a dominant individual who directs the pack and monopolises breeding opportunities through the force of his masculine aggression. It's all-but universal in modern stories about werewolves, and has even crept into the messaging of online influencers, apparently following the reasoning that anything true of wolves must necessarily also be true of humans.

It is, however, simply not true.

Having said which, it used to be a serious scientific theory, derived from behavioural studies on captive wolves conducted in the mid 20th century. Better studies at the end of the century, looking at wolves in their natural habitats and not stressed by close confinement with non-family members in zoo cages, revealed the truth: not only is the dominant female at least as important as the male, but the correct word for that dominant pair isn't "alpha", it's "parents".

A Brief History of Zokors

The rodents are the largest group of mammals, in terms of number of species, and they are divided into several families. Some of these are familiar, such as the mice, voles, squirrels, and gophers, but others are much less so, at least to the majority of people in the West. This includes, for example, the zokors.

There are a couple of reasons why zokors are not as well-known as some other rodent groups. For one thing, they only live in northeast Asia, an area that it's fair to say doesn't receive much attention in the Western world. For another, even if you did live there, you wouldn't see them very often, because they are burrowing animals that don't like coming to the surface if they can help it. Rather like moles, you might see the mounds of earth they leave, but not often the animal itself.

Strange Carnivores of Madagascar

Madagascar is the fourth-largest island in the world, almost three times the size of Great Britain, or half again the size of California. We should not be surprised, therefore, that it has a considerable amount of native wildlife. However, it's also noteworthy that it has been an island for a very long time - certainly for far longer than Britain has been.

In fact, Madagascar became an island around 91 million years ago, over 20 million years before even the likes of Tyrannosaurus appeared on the scene. Moreover, this was when it split away from what was then the island of India, with its break from Africa being almost twice as far back in time. But, even if we take that younger date for the beginning of its isolation from any sort of 'mainland', it's well before any of the sort of mammals we would recognise today had evolved. There's no equivalent here of mammoths nipping across the English Channel.

Covid and the Landscape of Fear

Left to their own devices, animals will wander about wherever there is food or other useful resources to be found. They would be limited only by the physical properties of their landscape, such as the inability to cross a wide river or the presence of a barren mountain range. Reality, of course, is never quite this simple.

The earliest use of the term "landscape of fear" that I could find on a quick search referred to a study about how female college students felt while walking particular routes alone after dark. Put in this context, one can well understand why people don't necessarily pick the simplest or most direct route to their objective, and why there are certain places one might simply wish to avoid altogether.

Viverrids: The Odd Ones Out

Binturong

Most viverrids have a similar appearance: slender, long-snouted animals, many of them spotted or brown-coated. One, however, stands out as particularly distinctive. This is the binturong (Arctitis binturong) and it's the largest species of "civet", with a total body length ranging from 61 to 96 cm (24 to 38 inches) and weighing between 9 and 20 kg (20 to 44 lbs), similar to small dog such as a Jack Russell or border terrier. Moreover, they appear somewhat larger than they are because, unlike other civets, they have a thick shaggy coat that obscures their actual body.

They are mostly black in colour but with grizzled fur that makes them look grey, and prominent white whiskers. The tail is long and prehensile, and the feet have large, rough pads, giving them an enhanced grip. In other respects, however, they are civet-like, with the same general pattern of teeth and other detailed anatomical features, including a simple perineal scent gland.

Eocene (Pt 3): Sword Teeth and River Pigs

Anoplotherium

Today, by number of species, the most successful group of large mammalian herbivores are the terrestrial artiodactyls - broadly speaking, the "cloven-footed mammals". Except for Australia, they are a key element of almost any mammalian fauna. Their first great burst of diversity occurred during the Middle Eocene, over 40 million years ago, when many new forms appeared across the Northern Hemisphere, some unique to particular places, others more widespread.

Most, however, were nothing we would recognise today. There were as yet no cattle, antelopes, deer, or pigs, and many of the creatures that did live that far back left, so far as we can tell, no living descendants.