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Anthropogenic Environments Are Associated with High Body Surface Temperatures in an Equatorial Mammal, the Banded Mongoose

Lucie Murphy, Monil Khera, Onismus Bwambale, Kevin Arbuckle Orcid Logo, Francis Mwanguhya, Michael A. Cant, Hazel Nichols Orcid Logo

Diversity, Volume: 18, Issue: 5, Start page: 243

Swansea University Authors: Lucie Murphy, Monil Khera, Kevin Arbuckle Orcid Logo, Hazel Nichols Orcid Logo

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DOI (Published version): 10.3390/d18050243

Abstract

Global land use is changing rapidly, particularly in the tropics, where human populations have had relatively high growth rates in recent decades. This has resulted in wildlife increasingly living in or using anthropogenic environments, which often have different thermal properties in comparison to...

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Published in: Diversity
ISSN: 1424-2818
Published: MDPI AG 2026
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URI: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa71793
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This has resulted in wildlife increasingly living in or using anthropogenic environments, which often have different thermal properties in comparison to natural habitats. For example, materials used for buildings, such as concrete and brick, typically absorb, retain and radiate more heat than vegetated surfaces. The mosaic of man-made and natural areas formed when anthropogenic environments expand is therefore likely to generate microhabitats with different thermal properties. Here, we investigated the association between microhabitats and the body surface temperature of wild banded mongooses (Mungos mungo), a social mammal living in equatorial Uganda. After controlling for the significant effects of air temperature, humidity, time of day and body contact, we found that mongooses had the highest body surface temperatures when present on anthropogenic substrates, such as discarded roofing straw and refuse, while mongooses present on building materials, dead vegetation and bare soil had intermediate body surface temperatures. In contrast, mongooses had the lowest body surface temperatures when present in more natural, vegetated habitats. Although our study is relatively small scale and limited in scope, our results indicate that anthropogenic modifications to natural environments may result in hotter microhabitats, which may in turn impact space use, movement and thermoregulation in wildlife. 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spelling 2026-05-12T10:47:30.1164374 v2 71793 2026-04-24 Anthropogenic Environments Are Associated with High Body Surface Temperatures in an Equatorial Mammal, the Banded Mongoose 804b37382a1da1f502597921578c2010 Lucie Murphy Lucie Murphy true false a63ca0b621b2f2b8d19f13db3f86b57f Monil Khera Monil Khera true false d1775d20b12e430869cc7be5d7d4a27e 0000-0002-9171-5874 Kevin Arbuckle Kevin Arbuckle true false 43ba12986bd7754484874c73eed0ebfe 0000-0002-4455-6065 Hazel Nichols Hazel Nichols true false 2026-04-24 BGPS Global land use is changing rapidly, particularly in the tropics, where human populations have had relatively high growth rates in recent decades. This has resulted in wildlife increasingly living in or using anthropogenic environments, which often have different thermal properties in comparison to natural habitats. For example, materials used for buildings, such as concrete and brick, typically absorb, retain and radiate more heat than vegetated surfaces. The mosaic of man-made and natural areas formed when anthropogenic environments expand is therefore likely to generate microhabitats with different thermal properties. Here, we investigated the association between microhabitats and the body surface temperature of wild banded mongooses (Mungos mungo), a social mammal living in equatorial Uganda. After controlling for the significant effects of air temperature, humidity, time of day and body contact, we found that mongooses had the highest body surface temperatures when present on anthropogenic substrates, such as discarded roofing straw and refuse, while mongooses present on building materials, dead vegetation and bare soil had intermediate body surface temperatures. In contrast, mongooses had the lowest body surface temperatures when present in more natural, vegetated habitats. Although our study is relatively small scale and limited in scope, our results indicate that anthropogenic modifications to natural environments may result in hotter microhabitats, which may in turn impact space use, movement and thermoregulation in wildlife. We hope that our study encourages further research into this understudied but emerging topic. Journal Article Diversity 18 5 243 MDPI AG 1424-2818 thermal microclimate; body surface temperature; anthropogenic change; rural development; banded mongoose 22 4 2026 2026-04-22 10.3390/d18050243 COLLEGE NANME Biosciences Geography and Physics School COLLEGE CODE BGPS Swansea University Not Required This work was supported by Swansea University, The University of Exeter, and a European Research Council grant (grant reference: 309249) awarded to MAC, and a UKRI grant (grant number APP43214) awarded to M.A.C. and H.J.N. 2026-05-12T10:47:30.1164374 2026-04-24T14:44:19.6325381 Faculty of Science and Engineering School of Biosciences, Geography and Physics - Biosciences Lucie Murphy 1 Monil Khera 2 Onismus Bwambale 3 Kevin Arbuckle 0000-0002-9171-5874 4 Francis Mwanguhya 5 Michael A. Cant 6 Hazel Nichols 0000-0002-4455-6065 7 71793__36591__a9d9aa101abe440e9729f48a6170f6d9.pdf diversity-18-00243.pdf 2026-04-24T14:46:49.8990547 Output 961452 application/pdf Version of Record true © 2026 by the authors. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license. true eng https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
title Anthropogenic Environments Are Associated with High Body Surface Temperatures in an Equatorial Mammal, the Banded Mongoose
spellingShingle Anthropogenic Environments Are Associated with High Body Surface Temperatures in an Equatorial Mammal, the Banded Mongoose
Lucie Murphy
Monil Khera
Kevin Arbuckle
Hazel Nichols
title_short Anthropogenic Environments Are Associated with High Body Surface Temperatures in an Equatorial Mammal, the Banded Mongoose
title_full Anthropogenic Environments Are Associated with High Body Surface Temperatures in an Equatorial Mammal, the Banded Mongoose
title_fullStr Anthropogenic Environments Are Associated with High Body Surface Temperatures in an Equatorial Mammal, the Banded Mongoose
title_full_unstemmed Anthropogenic Environments Are Associated with High Body Surface Temperatures in an Equatorial Mammal, the Banded Mongoose
title_sort Anthropogenic Environments Are Associated with High Body Surface Temperatures in an Equatorial Mammal, the Banded Mongoose
author_id_str_mv 804b37382a1da1f502597921578c2010
a63ca0b621b2f2b8d19f13db3f86b57f
d1775d20b12e430869cc7be5d7d4a27e
43ba12986bd7754484874c73eed0ebfe
author_id_fullname_str_mv 804b37382a1da1f502597921578c2010_***_Lucie Murphy
a63ca0b621b2f2b8d19f13db3f86b57f_***_Monil Khera
d1775d20b12e430869cc7be5d7d4a27e_***_Kevin Arbuckle
43ba12986bd7754484874c73eed0ebfe_***_Hazel Nichols
author Lucie Murphy
Monil Khera
Kevin Arbuckle
Hazel Nichols
author2 Lucie Murphy
Monil Khera
Onismus Bwambale
Kevin Arbuckle
Francis Mwanguhya
Michael A. Cant
Hazel Nichols
format Journal article
container_title Diversity
container_volume 18
container_issue 5
container_start_page 243
publishDate 2026
institution Swansea University
issn 1424-2818
doi_str_mv 10.3390/d18050243
publisher MDPI AG
college_str Faculty of Science and Engineering
hierarchytype
hierarchy_top_id facultyofscienceandengineering
hierarchy_top_title Faculty of Science and Engineering
hierarchy_parent_id facultyofscienceandengineering
hierarchy_parent_title Faculty of Science and Engineering
department_str School of Biosciences, Geography and Physics - Biosciences{{{_:::_}}}Faculty of Science and Engineering{{{_:::_}}}School of Biosciences, Geography and Physics - Biosciences
document_store_str 1
active_str 0
description Global land use is changing rapidly, particularly in the tropics, where human populations have had relatively high growth rates in recent decades. This has resulted in wildlife increasingly living in or using anthropogenic environments, which often have different thermal properties in comparison to natural habitats. For example, materials used for buildings, such as concrete and brick, typically absorb, retain and radiate more heat than vegetated surfaces. The mosaic of man-made and natural areas formed when anthropogenic environments expand is therefore likely to generate microhabitats with different thermal properties. Here, we investigated the association between microhabitats and the body surface temperature of wild banded mongooses (Mungos mungo), a social mammal living in equatorial Uganda. After controlling for the significant effects of air temperature, humidity, time of day and body contact, we found that mongooses had the highest body surface temperatures when present on anthropogenic substrates, such as discarded roofing straw and refuse, while mongooses present on building materials, dead vegetation and bare soil had intermediate body surface temperatures. In contrast, mongooses had the lowest body surface temperatures when present in more natural, vegetated habitats. Although our study is relatively small scale and limited in scope, our results indicate that anthropogenic modifications to natural environments may result in hotter microhabitats, which may in turn impact space use, movement and thermoregulation in wildlife. We hope that our study encourages further research into this understudied but emerging topic.
published_date 2026-04-22T07:41:49Z
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