Cape gray mongoose

The Cape gray mongoose, Herpestes pulverulentus, also called the small grey mongoose, is a small mongoose native to South Africa, Lesotho and southern Namibia, and known to occur northwards to southern Angola. It is dark grey with a darker tail tip and darker legs, a long bushy tail and small rounded ears, and it weighs about 0.5 to 1 kilogram. It lives in fynbos, Karoo semi-desert scrub, thicket and forest but is not found in the grassland biome, and it often lives close to people, even under outbuildings. It is diurnal and solitary when not breeding. It feeds mostly on insects and small rodents, in particular Otomys and Rhabdomys, and also takes birds, small reptiles, amphibians and fruit.