Short-tailed mongoose

The short-tailed mongoose, Urva brachyura, is a mongoose native to Peninsular Malaysia, Sumatra and Borneo that inhabits evergreen forest and rural gardens from sea level to 1,500 meters. John Edward Gray first described it in 1837. It is red-brown to black with black limbs, a grayish head with a black spot on the chin, and a total body length of 60 to 65 centimeters including a short tail of about 25 centimeters, and it weighs about 1.4 kilograms. Several subspecies are recognized, and one of them, Hose's mongoose, is considered a separate species by some authors. It has been listed as Near Threatened on the IUCN Red List since 2008.