| Brown-tailed mongoose | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Plate ofGalidia olivacea, asynonym of the brown-tailed mongoose, from 1839. The tail is incomplete.[1] | |
Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Carnivora |
| Family: | Eupleridae |
| Genus: | Salanoia |
| Species: | S. concolor |
| Binomial name | |
| Salanoia concolor (I. Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, 1837) | |
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| Brown-tailed mongoose range | |
Thebrown-tailed mongoose,brown-tailed vontsira,Malagasy brown-tailed mongoose, orsalano (Salanoia concolor) is a species ofmammal in the familyEupleridae. It isendemic to Madagascar. Its naturalhabitat ismoist lowland tropical forest. It is threatened byhabitat loss.[2]
The brown-tailed mongoose was first described in 1837 by French zoologistIsidore Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire under the namesGalidia unicolor andGalidia olivacea. He placed both in thegenusGalidia, together with thering-tailed mongoose (Galidia elegans),[3] which is now recognized as the only species of that genus.[4] However, the nameunicolor had been a misprint forconcolor, and the name was corrected in an erratum and in a later note by Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire.[5] In 1865,[Note 1]John Edward Gray placedconcolor andolivacea in their ownsubgenus ofGalidia, which he calledSalanoia.[7] In 1882,St. George Jackson Mivart also separatedolivacea andconcolor fromGalidia, and placed them in a separate genusHemigalidia, without mentioningSalanoia.[8] In his 1904Index generum mammalium, Palmer noted thatSalanoia, the first name to be published, was the proper name for the genus.[9] AlthoughGlover Morrill Allen, in 1939, still listed two species, which he calledSalanoia olivacea andS. unicolor,[10] by 1972 R. Albignac recognized a single species only, which he calledSalanoia concolor.[11] A second species ofSalanoia,Salanoia durrelli, was described in 2010.[12]
