The banded mongoose is a diurnal mongoose found throughout much of sub-Saharan Africa in habitats ranging from grassland to savanna, scrub, brushland, and open woodland. These mongooses live and forage in large groups of between 7 and 40 individuals without a strict hierarchy and low agression. They shelter in a communal den, often an abandoned termite mound, which is changed every few days. Millipedes and beetles make up most of their diet, but they also eat other arthropods and small vertebrates. As they forage, they grunt to keep in contact with each other. Banded mongooses are known to forage together with baboons. They have also been observed removing external parasites from warthogs, giving the mongoose a meal and the warthog a cleaning.