Atilax

{{short description|Genus of mammal}}

{{Automatic taxobox

| fossil_range = Early Pleistocene - Recent

| image = Marsh mongoose or water mongoose, Atilax paludinosus, at Rietvlei Nature Reserve, Gauteng, South Africa (22778470000).jpg

| image_caption = Marsh mongoose (Atilax paludinosus)

| taxon = Atilax

| authority = F. Cuvier, 1826

| subdivision_ranks = Species

| subdivision =

• Atilax paludinosus
• †Atilax mesotes

}}

Atilax is a genus of mongoose containing a single living species, the marsh mongoose (Atilax paludinosus). A single fossil species probably ancestral to the marsh mongoose is also known from South Africa.{{cite book |last1=Brain |first1=C.K. |title=The Hunters Or the Hunted? An Introduction to African Cave Taphonomy |date=1983 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |page=166}}

The generic name Atilax was introduced in 1826 by Frédéric Cuvier.{{cite book |author=Cuvier, F. G. |year=1826 |chapter=Vansire |title=Histoire Naturelle des Mammifères : avec des figures originales, coloriées, dessinées d'aprèsdes animaux vivans. Tome 5 |editor=E. Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire |editor2=F. G. Cuvier |publisher=A. Belin |location=Paris |page=LIV |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/HistoirenaturelVGeof/page/n223}}

They are solitary, nocturnal, and semi-aquatic mammals that inhabits wetlands and feeds on fish, crustaceans, frogs, and small mammals.{{Cite journal |last=Ray |first=Justina |date=September 1997 |title=Comparative ecology of two African forest mongooses, Herpestes naso and Atilax paludinosus |url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1365-2028.1997.086-89086.x |journal=African Journal of Ecology |language=en |volume=35 |issue=3 |pages=237–253 |doi=10.1111/j.1365-2028.1997.086-89086.x|bibcode=1997AfJEc..35..237R |url-access=subscription }}