Stripe-Necked Mongoose

The stripe-necked mongoose is found in western peninsular India and Sri Lanka and is the largest of the Asian mongooses. 

Stripe-necked mongoose in Yala NP.

Its most distinguishing characteristic is a black stripe that runs laterally down both sides of the neck and which gives it its name. It is a rusty brown to grizzled gray. Compared to other mongooses, its tail is relatively short and black, except for some gray at the base. There are two subspecies, Herpestes vitticollis vitticollis, which has more of a reddish tint to its fur, the one we saw, and H. v. inornatus, which lacks the reddish tint to its fur. 

They prefer forested areas near water sources. 

I'm finding that my camera had a hard time focusing on the mongooses of both species, perhaps because of the grizzled gray in low-light circumstances. I saw only one stripe-necked mongoose, it was early on the first day in Yala National Park while we were in earnest search for leopards. Sanjay had indicated we were not stopping for anything other than leopards the first two hours. Judy was not feeling well that morning and did not accompany us. Sanjay seemed excited to see this mongoose, and stopped despite his earlier declaration, noting it was the second species of mongoose we had seen on our trip.