History

The first detailed observations of banded mongoose behaviour and ecology were made at Mweya by Ernest Neal of Uganda Institute of Ecology in the late 1960s, followed by Jon Rood of the Smithsonian Institute and early 1970s. This work was brought to a halt by turbulent political conditions that prevailed in Uganda throughout the 1970s and early 1980s. In the early 1990s Daniela De Luca and Rosie Woodroffe from the Institute of Zoology in London returned to Mweya to follow up on Rood's study.

Building on this research, the Banded Mongoose Research Project was initiated in 1995 by Michael Cant and Tim Clutton-Brock from University of Cambridge. The animals have been studied continuously since then by a team of researchers from the Universities of Exeter, Cambridge and Zurich.

Much of the success of the project is down to the work of three Ugandan field assistants who are based permanently at the site: Francis Mwanguhya, Solomon Kyabulima and Kenneth Mwesige. Francis and Solomon have together over 20 years field experience working on the mongooses and can recognize most animals by sight.