Class: MAMMALIA

Order: CARNIVORA

Family: EUPLERIDAE

Genus: GALIDA

Species: ELEGANS

Known also as the ring-tailed mongoose, this name is something of a misnomer – the species, singular in its genus, is not itself of the mongoose family, Herpestidae, but rather belongs to the family of Malagasy carnivores, which is Eupleridae. It is not either the only ‘honorary mongoose’ in its sub-family either – as its entire sub-family, Galidiinae, is comprised of animals remarkably similar to mongoose in physique and behaviour – that the entire sub-family could be dubbed as ‘honourary mongooses’, more than likely a result of convergent evolution, as its close relatives of sub-family Euplerinae would evolve into a more cat-like appearance and a large predator niche. Seemingly diverged off a separate evolutionary branch than its other ‘honorary mongoose’ relatives, it is perhaps the most early-diverged of these, diverging some 10 or so million years ago. The ancestral ‘honourary mongoose’ seems to have shared an ancestor with the cat-like fossa – which it diverged from perhaps 20 million years ago.