How to Quantify the Egyptian Mongoose Expansion at the European Edge of Its Range: Scientific Reports Paper Combines Expert Questionnaires with Dynamic Occupancy Models, Published November 11
Spain — Scientific Reports published a study by Pablo Ferreras and colleagues on November 11, 2026, titled on assessing the range expansion of a generalist carnivore by a novel approach combining questionnaires to experts and dynamic occupancy models. The species studied is the Egyptian mongoose, Herpestes ichneumon, at the European edge of its range.
The abstract states that despite the ongoing global biodiversity crisis, the geographic ranges of many mesopredators are expanding, largely driven by their generalist life histories and the decline of apex predators. Quantifying these expansions and identifying their underlying drivers remain challenging and require innovative methodological approaches, which the study set out to provide.
The team combined questionnaires to experts with dynamic occupancy models. The acknowledgements thank the environmental rangers of Castilla-La Mancha for taking part in the online questionnaire survey, and their demarcation and provincial coordinators for helping to engage the rangers. The study is part of research project SBPLY/17/180501/000184, funded by the regional Government of Castilla-La Mancha and the European Regional Development Fund.
The authors are based at Spanish institutions including the Instituto de Investigación en Recursos Cinegéticos, the Instituto de Estudios Sociales Avanzados, the Universidad de Extremadura, the Universidad de Málaga and INIA-CSIC. Correspondence is to Pablo Ferreras, the authors declare no competing interests, and the article is published open access. This report follows the abstract, author and funding information of the paper and does not infer model values not stated there.
Source: Scientific
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：图中是一只埃及獴在野外栖息。图中是埃及獴本尊的实物照片，本研究对象即该物种。מינוזיג，CC BY-SA 4.0，经Wikimedia Commons。 / Photo: file photo. מינוזיג, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
