Anthropogenic Environments Are Associated with High Body Surface Temperatures in an Equatorial Mammal, the Banded Mongoose

Global land use is changing rapidly, particularly in the tropics, where human populations have had relatively high growth rates in recent decades. This has resulted in wildlife increasingly living in or using anthropogenic environments, which often have different thermal properties in comparison to natural habitats. For example, materials used for buildings, such as concrete and brick, typically absorb, retain and radiate more heat than vegetated surfaces. The mosaic of man-made and natural areas formed when anthropogenic environments expand is therefore likely to generate microhabitats with different thermal properties. Here, we investigated the association between microhabitats and the body surface temperature of wild banded mongooses (Mungos mungo), a social mammal living in equatorial Uganda. After controlling for the significant effects of air temperature, humidity, time of day and body contact, we found that mongooses had the highest body surface temperatures when present on anthropogenic substrates, such as discarded roofing straw and refuse, while mongooses present on building materials, dead vegetation and bare soil had intermediate body surface temperatures. In contrast, mongooses had the lowest body surface temperatures when present in more natural, vegetated habitats. Although our study is relatively small scale and limited in scope, our results indicate that anthropogenic modifications to natural environments may result in hotter microhabitats, which may in turn impact space use, movement and thermoregulation in wildlife. We hope that our study encourages further research into this understudied but emerging topic.