Cognitive flexibility in urban yellow mongooses, Cynictis penicillata.

Cognitive flexibility enables animals to alter their behaviour and respond appropriately to environmental changes. Such flexibility is important in urban settings where environmental changes occur rapidly and continually. We studied whether free-living, urban-dwelling yellow mongooses, Cynictis penicillata, in South Africa, are cognitively flexible in reversal learning and attention task experiments (n = 10). Reversal learning was conducted using two puzzle boxes that were distinct visually and spatially, each containing a preferred or non-preferred food type. Once mongooses learned which box contained the preferred food type, the food types were reversed. The mongooses successfully unlearned their previously learned response in favour of learning a new response, possibly through a win-stay, lose-shift strategy. Attention task experiments were conducted using one puzzle box surrounded by zero, one, two or three objects, introducing various levels of distraction while solving the task. The mongooses were distracted by two and three distractions but were able to solve the task despite the distractions by splitting their attention between the puzzle box task and remaining vigilant. However, those exposed to human residents more often were more vigilant. We provide the first evidence of cognitive flexibility in urban yellow mongooses, which enables them to modify their behaviour to urban environments.

Flexible Use of Urban Resources by the Yellow Mongoose Cynictis penicillata.

Several species are negatively impacted by urbanization, while others thrive in urban areas by exploiting anthropogenic habitats matching their pre-existing niche preferences, or by modifying their behavior for urban life. We studied the ecology of a recent urban resident, the yellow mongoose, in an urban ecological estate in South Africa. We assessed urban dwelling yellow mongooses' diet, spatial and temporal occurrence, home range size, and whenever possible, compared our findings to the published literature on their non-urban conspecifics. Additionally, we evaluated occurrence overlap with residential gardens. Similar to their non-urban counterparts, scat analyses revealed that yellow mongooses in urban areas fed mainly on insects, particularly during spring/summer. In the colder months, anthropogenic items, small mammals and birds in scats increased. Camera trap surveys showed that the mongooses were common in open habitats, similar to previous studies, and exhibited a species-typical bimodal diurnal activity pattern. The occurrence of these mongooses was greater near human residences than at sites further away. Home range sizes were considerably smaller than those of non-urban mongoose. Mongoose occurred in residential gardens, more so during the colder months. The urban yellow mongooses' diet, habitat preference and activity patterns were similar to non-urban conspecifics. Nonetheless, the exploitation of anthropogenic food sources, occurrence in residential gardens and smaller home range sizes showed that they respond flexibly to urbanization, and these modifications might aid in their success in urban areas.