on giant pouched rats (Cricetomys), Temminck's mouse (Mus musculoides), Tullberg's soft-furred mouse (Praomys tulbergi), Nigerian shrew (Crocidura nigeriae), Hallowell's toad (Amietophrynus maculatus), African brown water snake (Afronatrix anoscopus), and Mabuya skinks. It attacks and feeds on venomous snakes, and is resistant to the venom of Palestine viper (Daboia palaestinae), black desert cobra (Walterinnesia aegyptia) and black-necked spitting cobra (Naja nigricollis). In Spain, it has been recorded less frequently in areas where the Iberian lynx was reintroduced. Reproduction Captive males and females reach sexual maturity at the age of two years. In Doñana National Park, courtship and mating happens in spring between February and June. Two to three pups are born between mid April and mid August after a gestation of 11 weeks. They are hairless at first, and open their eyes after about a week. Females take care of them for up to one year, occasionally also longer. They start foraging on their own at the age of four months, but compete for food brought back to them after that age. In the wild, Egyptian mongooses probably reach 12 years of age. A captive Egyptian mongoose was over 20 years old. Its generation length is 7.5 years. Taxonomy In 1758, Carl Linnaeus described an Egyptian mongoose from the area of the Nile River in Egypt in his work Systema Naturae and gave it the scientific name Viverra ichneumon. H. i. ichneumon (Linnaeus, 1758) is the nominate subspecies. The following zoological specimen were described between the late 18th century and the early 1930s as subspecies: Viverra cafra (Gmelin, 1788) − based on a description of a specimen from the Cape of Good Hope. Herpestes ichneumon numidicus F. G. Cuvier, 1834 − two individuals from Algiers in Algeria kept in the menagerie of the Muséum d'Histoire Naturelle, France Herpestes ichneumon widdringtonii Gray, 1842 − a specimen from Sierra Morena in Spain Herpestes angolensis (Bocage, 1890) − a male specimen from Quissange in Angola Mungos ichneumon parvidens (Lönnberg, 1908) − three specimens collected near the lower Congo River in Congo Free State Mungos ichneumon funestus (Osgood, 1910) − a specimen from Naivasha in British East Africa Mungos ichneumon centralis (Lönnberg, 1917) − two specimens from Beni, Democratic Republic of the Congo Herpestes ichneumon sangronizi Cabrera, 1924 − a specimen from Mogador in Morocco Herpestes caffer sabiensis (Roberts, 1926) − a specimen from Sabi Sand Game Reserve in Southern Africa Herpestes cafer mababiensis (Roberts,