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- Aug 8, 2005
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RANT!!
In reply to a query I received regarding my attitude towards the mongoose... I am an ardent naturalist but there is one animal in the world I utterly and completely despise. I haven't read about the mongoose and all my information has come from first hand observations and speaking with others who have had experience with them.
The mongoose evolved from a giant sewer rat, a member of the weasel family, and a chain saw. It is without peer in the animal kingdom as the most obnoxious, aggressive and belligerent. It is an omnivore with habits quite similar to a bear, but it's mentality makes serial killers look like Mother Theresa.
A mongoose got into the large snake pit at a snake farm tourist attraction a while back resulting in over 40 dead snakes, mostly Thai Cobras but also a dozen highly aggressive ultra hyper Asian Rat Snakes. They weren't just killed but mostly shredded.
The mongoose is the deadly enemy of the King Cobra. Where other snakes will commonly head into trees and bushes, the King will usually try to take refuge in a hole in the ground which is suicide. Oddly, for all it's innate athletic ability the mongoose doesn't appear arboreal at all.
I was once taking out the trash one night in Fiji, one of many places where the mongoose has wiped out nearly all native fauna. A mongoose was in the trash can. Instead of being it's usual furtive self, this one went for my hand. I waved my hand to get it to run off and it attacked again. I was wondering if it might have been rabid until several locals told me they often acted like that.
The mongoose is fully cosmopolitan. It can live in any location a rat can be found. IMHO, if it wasn't for their preference for warm climates, their extreme anti social tendencies among their own kind, and the advent of warfarin, they would eventually destroy all other animals in the temperate to tropical world.
Aggressive and NASTY! I saw a mongoose go after a 5 foot Asian rat snake which is one of the most hyper bite happy snakes in the world. The mongoose dived forward with a speed rivaling the strike of a rattler, got a bite, then shaking it's head it rapidly backed up resulting in a massive tearing wound out of all proportion to the original bite. 2 such bites killed the snake.
Anti social. Mongoose get into fights with each other all the time. They invade each others nests and slaughter any babies found. Sweet little darlings.
Riki Tiki Tavi was bullfeathers. Nobody in the know keeps a mongoose as a pet, unless they are really into bandages. It is never predictable. When kept in captivity there has to be protective measures to keep people from putting their fingers through the wire of a cage. The baby in that book would be wall to wall bandages after living with the darling for a few days.
They appear to like to fight, or insanely establish and defend their territory. At that house in Fiji a pair of mongoose went at it in the back yard. It looked to me like another mongoose joined in like a dog fight. The next morning I found two dead adult mongoose and three dead babies in the area, all shredded. What struck me was the condition of the bodies. In a normal animal fight the victims would have crawled off to die. Apparently the victorious aggressor kept right on attacking, probably after it's victim was dead.
I sometimes feel like starting an 'I hate Mongoose' club. I'd love it if someone could tell me one redeeming quality of these little monsters.
In reply to a query I received regarding my attitude towards the mongoose... I am an ardent naturalist but there is one animal in the world I utterly and completely despise. I haven't read about the mongoose and all my information has come from first hand observations and speaking with others who have had experience with them.
The mongoose evolved from a giant sewer rat, a member of the weasel family, and a chain saw. It is without peer in the animal kingdom as the most obnoxious, aggressive and belligerent. It is an omnivore with habits quite similar to a bear, but it's mentality makes serial killers look like Mother Theresa.
A mongoose got into the large snake pit at a snake farm tourist attraction a while back resulting in over 40 dead snakes, mostly Thai Cobras but also a dozen highly aggressive ultra hyper Asian Rat Snakes. They weren't just killed but mostly shredded.
The mongoose is the deadly enemy of the King Cobra. Where other snakes will commonly head into trees and bushes, the King will usually try to take refuge in a hole in the ground which is suicide. Oddly, for all it's innate athletic ability the mongoose doesn't appear arboreal at all.
I was once taking out the trash one night in Fiji, one of many places where the mongoose has wiped out nearly all native fauna. A mongoose was in the trash can. Instead of being it's usual furtive self, this one went for my hand. I waved my hand to get it to run off and it attacked again. I was wondering if it might have been rabid until several locals told me they often acted like that.
The mongoose is fully cosmopolitan. It can live in any location a rat can be found. IMHO, if it wasn't for their preference for warm climates, their extreme anti social tendencies among their own kind, and the advent of warfarin, they would eventually destroy all other animals in the temperate to tropical world.
Aggressive and NASTY! I saw a mongoose go after a 5 foot Asian rat snake which is one of the most hyper bite happy snakes in the world. The mongoose dived forward with a speed rivaling the strike of a rattler, got a bite, then shaking it's head it rapidly backed up resulting in a massive tearing wound out of all proportion to the original bite. 2 such bites killed the snake.
Anti social. Mongoose get into fights with each other all the time. They invade each others nests and slaughter any babies found. Sweet little darlings.
Riki Tiki Tavi was bullfeathers. Nobody in the know keeps a mongoose as a pet, unless they are really into bandages. It is never predictable. When kept in captivity there has to be protective measures to keep people from putting their fingers through the wire of a cage. The baby in that book would be wall to wall bandages after living with the darling for a few days.
They appear to like to fight, or insanely establish and defend their territory. At that house in Fiji a pair of mongoose went at it in the back yard. It looked to me like another mongoose joined in like a dog fight. The next morning I found two dead adult mongoose and three dead babies in the area, all shredded. What struck me was the condition of the bodies. In a normal animal fight the victims would have crawled off to die. Apparently the victorious aggressor kept right on attacking, probably after it's victim was dead.
I sometimes feel like starting an 'I hate Mongoose' club. I'd love it if someone could tell me one redeeming quality of these little monsters.
