The crab-eating mongoose (Herpestes urva) is a mongoose species ranging from the northeastern Indian subcontinent to Southeast Asia, southern China and Taiwan. Throughout its wide range there are many languages and therefore various common names for the species. In particular, according to at least some major dictionaries, the source of the species name urva (which at one time was also the name of the genus, as in: Urva urva) was the Nepali language urvá or arvá. Order: Carnivora, Family: Herpestidae, Subfamily: Herpestinae, Genus: Herpestes, Species: Herpestes urva Hodgson, 1836.