FEMALE OF THE SPECIES
Lucy Cooke meets the female warmongers of Africa’s savannahs
Ionce spent a charming afternoon in the company of a gaggle of banded mongooses. Mungos mungo are poor cousins of the meerkat; close taxonomic relatives with a fraction of the fame but the same goofy charisma (in spades). These highly gregarious creatures live in boisterous rabbles of up to 40 family members and cruise the savannahs of southern and eastern Africa in search of beetle-shaped food. This is done as a fluid mass, which washes through the grassland as an undulating wave of stripey grey fur and mellifluous chatter.
Mongooses are big on gossip: they talk to each other constantly in a succession of soft purrs as a form of vocal grooming. Soothing tones keep the troop safe because they allow them to stay in close physical contact with each other while their heads are ferreting around in the sand in search of grubs.
The overall effect is utterly enchanting, and after a few hours of being serenaded by their dulcet calls, I was ready to sign up and join the gang. It takes cunning to be a female mongoose, however, and recent research has exposed the shocking levels of deviance required to succeed in their chatty posse.
Banded mongooses are highly territorial and turf wars are as frequent as they are bloody. Around three times a month a mongoose rabble will wind up violently clashing with their neighbours: fatal injuries and death are commonplace. The mortality costs are similar to those seen in a handful of the most warlike mammals, including lions, chimpanzees and, of course, humans.
Such warmongering behaviour is generally considered the preserve of males. But in the case of the banded mongoose it turns out the females are the instigators, and it’s all about sex.
Unlike their murderous meerkat cousins, banded mongoose society is less draconian. A bullying alpha female is still at the helm, but other females do get the chance to breed, which they do as a group in synchrony. Sexual partners are somewhat limited, however. Offspring rarely disperse to join other groups, which makes sex a family affair: nearly one in 10 pups are the product of sister-brother or daughter-father mating. Without intergroup migration, gangs are in danger of becoming genetic silos and suffering the deleterious effects of inbreeding. Females have found a sneaky way to provide their offspring with the genetic diversity they need to survive. Researchers have discovered that females start fights with rival gangs so they can sneak off in the ensuing chaos to have sex with their males. This brings fresh genetic blood into the group but comes at a price to the males, who bear the cost of these violent skirmishes. This kind of exploitative leadership, in which commanders of conflict expose others to greater risks than themselves, is more commonly associated with human warfare than cute furry critters. But as far as female banded mongooses are concerned, all’s unfair in love and war.