Mangouste à queue courte

The different habitat use of this 'species' (see 'Taxonomic notes') between land-masses requires consideration of threats specific to each land-mass. There is no evidence that Short-tailed Mongoose can survive in plantations or other non-forest habitats remote from native forest in any land-mass. Similarly there is no evidence that it is hunted (as targeted quarry or as by-catch) in any land-mass at levels high enough to drive declines within remaining suitable habitat. Therefore, forest loss rates are likely to provide a reasonable indicator of population decline rates.

In Borneo the species is geographically and altitudinally widespread, and evidently occurs frequently in degraded and fragmented habitats (Duckworth et al. in prep.). While large-scale deforestation of Borneo in recent decades will have driven large declines in the Bornean population, there is no evidence of major threats within remaining suitable habitat. Some level of retributory killing as a (perceived or actual) predator of small livestock is likely.

In the Malay peninsula, the restriction to altitudes below 160 m and to native forest means that huge declines will have occurred in the latter half of the twentieth century, with the large-scale conversion of lowland forest to plantations. Rates of conversion have recently dropped considerably (because little remains to be converted outside legally protected areas), but the suitability of the present landscape to peninsular Short-tailed Mongoose is difficult to evaluate. There is no meaningful information on patch size required for viable populations, or on dispersal through habitats that cannot maintain the species. Although it is not known to be, it is quite plausible that the peninsular population is in ongoing decline and would warrant conservation attention.

The level of threat on Sumatra is unclear. Lowland forest loss on Sumatra is proceeding extremely rapidly, and if the species is tied to lowland forest there, major declines will be ongoing. However, if it has an altitudinal distribution similar to that in Borneo and if it uses anthropogenic habitats, declines in Sumatra will be much shallower. While an exhaustive presentation of Sumatran records with altitude and habitat condition remains to be conducted, those few records with precise altitude traced for this assessment were all from the lowlands and, because the species is evidently localized on the island, even in old-growth forest, it is possible that current rates and patterns of forest loss on Sumatra are causing serious reductions on the island.

Short-tailed Mongoose is protected in all of Malaysia and Indonesia, but receives little direct conservation attention. This is appropriate on Borneo, but not in West Malaysia. It has been found in many protected areas in Borneo, and several in West Malaysia and Sumatra. The most urgent conservation needs comprise:

Taxonomic clarification. Short-tailed Mongoose populations of (i) peninsular Malaysia and Sumatra and (ii) Borneo are distinct in mitochondrial DNA by a level suggestive of species divergence, and this is supported by dental differences (Veron et al. 2015). If further information shows them to be distinct species, and if the habitat use of the form on Sumatra echoes that in peninsular Malaysia, then the peninsular Malaysia / Sumatra form is a cryptic species that is probably globally threatened (in common with many other peninsula/Sumatran lowland forest obligate mammals and birds).

Habitat-use clarification for Sumatra. The extent to which Sumatran Short-tailed Mongoose uses hill and montane areas, and anthropogenic areas at any altitude, warrants priority assessment, as these attributes have a large effect on how threatened it is on the island.

Site protection in peninsular Malaysia. All evidence suggests that the peninsular Malaysian Short-tailed Mongoose, whatever its taxonomic rank, occupies a narrow and threatened range of habitats. Effective protection of old-growth forest is vital. Much of that which survives is already within protected areas, but these vary widely in their effectiveness at preventing illegal hunting and clearance.