Managing the Small Indian Mongoose (Herpestes javanicus) in the Midst of Human Recreation: What is the Optimal Approach?

In natural recreation areas, habituated wildlife can pose a threat to visitor health and safety by transmitting disease or causing physical injury. Although removal of problem wildlife can help to alleviate these problems, it can also be a labor-intensive, costly practice. To improve the efficiency of a removal program, trapping efforts should be directed towards the spatial and temporal peaks of the target species’ activity patterns. An animal’s activity is often dictated by environmental conditions such as season or lunar phase; however, in a recreation area, it can also be affected by anthropogenic factors such as human presence and provisioning of food sources (i.e. trash cans or picnic areas). A species can 1) be attracted to anthropogenic food sources when human presence is highest, or 2) be attracted to anthropogenic food sources, but only when humans are not present, or 3) avoid anthropogenic food sources and human presence entirely. Each of these scenarios would necessitate a different management strategy to achieve the highest level of trapping efficiency. In the Caribbean National Forest, Puerto Rico, small Indian mongooses are currently controlled by removal trapping to reduce the threat of rabies transmission. Although trapping usually occurs diurnally near areas of high human use, it is unknown whether or not this strategy targets the highest number of animals. Using radiotelemetry, we investigated the movement behavior of 7 mongooses trapped in the picnic areas. We determined animals’ hourly travel distances, activity levels (moving or stationary), and distance of animal locations from human structures (trails, trash cans, and picnic cabanas); and compared these measures between days of high and low visitorship. The distance mongooses were found from human structures was not affected by the day of the week. Activity levels and movements varied by day, but it was unclear how this variation was affected by forest visitor levels. This paper will discuss