A slender mongoose with short, rounded ears. It is active by day, usually alone, and eats insects, small animals, fruit, and other foods.
It has a slender body, short legs, small rounded ears, and a pointed muzzle. Its tail is thick at the base and tapers toward the tip. The fur away from the abdomen includes black, brown, and yellowish-white hairs.
On Hawaii Island, small Indian mongooses gather near feral-pig carcasses. In one instance, six radio-tagged animals were detected simultaneously at or near a carcass. A substantial food source can draw several individuals whose ranges overlap.
This occurred during tracking near Hilo at Kaiwiki in 2006. Researchers fitted seven males and six females with transmitters. Several gathered around a discarded pig carcass over a 14-day period; both sexes were attracted. The observation illustrates temporary aggregation around food.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.
On Amami Oshima, introduced mongooses were controlled to protect native animals from predation. After the last capture in April 2018, monitoring continued with traps, detection dogs and camera traps. On 3 September 2024, the Ministry of the Environment declared island-wide eradication following probability estimates and expert evaluation.