The Short-tailed Mongoose (Herpestes brachyurus) is a species of mongoose

Mongoose

Mongoose are a family of 33 living species of small carnivorans from southern Eurasia and mainland Africa. Four additional species from Madagascar in the subfamily Galidiinae, which were previously classified in this family, are also referred to as "mongooses" or "mongoose-like"...

 that lives in the rainforest

Rainforest

Rainforests are forests characterized by high rainfall, with definitions based on a minimum normal annual rainfall of 1750-2000 mm...

s of Southeast Asia

Southeast Asia

Southeast Asia, South-East Asia, South East Asia or Southeastern Asia is a subregion of Asia, consisting of the countries that are geographically south of China, east of India, west of New Guinea and north of Australia. The region lies on the intersection of geological plates, with heavy seismic...

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The species is red-brown to black, with black limbs. The head is more grayish, with a black spot on the chin. This species has a total length of 60 to 65 cm (including tail) and a weight of about 1.4 kg. The tail is relatively short, about 25 cm.

The Short-tailed Mongoose is found in lowland rainforests of Malay Peninsula

Malay Peninsula

The Malay Peninsula or Thai-Malay Peninsula is a peninsula in Southeast Asia. The land mass runs approximately north-south and, at its terminus, is the southern-most point of the Asian mainland...

, Borneo

Borneo

Borneo is the third largest island in the world and is located north of Java Island, Indonesia, at the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia....

, Sumatra

Sumatra

Sumatra is an island in western Indonesia, westernmost of the Sunda Islands. It is the largest island entirely in Indonesia , and the sixth largest island in the world at 473,481 km2 with a population of 50,365,538...

 and the Philippine

Philippines

The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...

 islands Palawan

Palawan

Palawan is an island province of the Philippines located in the MIMAROPA region or Region 4. Its capital is Puerto Princesa City, and it is the largest province in the country in terms of total area of jurisdiction. The islands of Palawan stretch from Mindoro in the northeast to Borneo in the...

 and Busuanga

Busuanga Island

Busuanga Island is the largest island in the Calamian Group in the province of Palawan in the Philippines. Busuanga Island is, in fact, the second largest island in the province after Palawan island itself. The island is located halfway between the islands of Mindoro and Palawan with the South...

. It is common in the neighbourhood of rivers and other bodies of waters. One of its subspecies

Subspecies

Subspecies in biological classification, is either a taxonomic rank subordinate to species, ora taxonomic unit in that rank . A subspecies cannot be recognized in isolation: a species will either be recognized as having no subspecies at all or two or more, never just one...

 is often considered a separate species instead, the Hose's Mongoose

Hose's Mongoose

Hose's Mongoose is a subspecies of the Short-tailed Mongoose, but it is sometimes considered a separate species instead, Herpestes hosei. It is only known from a single specimen, an adult female taken in the Baram district, Sarawak, Malaysia, in 1893...

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