Helogale hirtula
Silhouette: Margot Michaud · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~90% in a week >90%
The Ethiopian dwarf mongoose (Helogale hirtula), also known as the desert dwarf mongoose or Somali dwarf mongoose, is a mongoose native to East Africa, particularly Ethiopia, Kenya, and Somalia. The Ethiopian dwarf mongoose sends out warning calls to its family if a predator is detected. It also produces general alarm calls when danger is not present. These calls have different pitches which indicate different levels of urgency for the family, could convey the predator's species, distance and elevation to the family all through alarm calls.
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| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Samburu National Reserve | 🇰🇪 Kenya |
More parks will be added in future updates.
Likely
About 50% of wildlife watchers report a Somali Dwarf Mongoose sighting in Samburu National Reserve on a given day, based on 37 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 15th most-seen of the 25 mammals we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 90%, and over a week to over 90%, if each day is a fresh chance.
February
In that month about 70% of wildlife watchers report a Somali Dwarf Mongoose in Samburu National Reserve on a given day, against under 5% in December, the lowest month. That is one of Samburu National Reserve's driest months, with about 10 mm of rain against 95 mm in April.
Between 2 and 5 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Somali Dwarf Mongoose sightings with a recorded time, and about 8 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
Only Samburu National Reserve, in our data
Samburu National Reserve is the only park on Wallace's Line with enough records to rate Somali Dwarf Mongoose sightings: about 50% of wildlife watchers there report one on a given day.
Same order: Carnivora
The closest relatives of the Somali Dwarf Mongoose that you can see in Samburu National Reserve (order Carnivora, Carnivorans) are Cheetah (about 50%), Lion (about 40%) and Leopard (about 40%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Somali Dwarf Mongoose is recorded against all the mammals logged in Samburu National Reserve (37 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
