Small and fury, the mongoose hardly looks like a snake killer. Yet, says author R.O Pearse, " perhaps the snake's most vicious enemy . . . is the mongoose." Continues Pearse: "This little chap must surely pack as large a chunk of sheer, naked courage in his little body as any other creature of the wild . . . attacks on snakes are legendary."
Mongoose facts: Just what is this extraordinary brave creature? The mongoose belongs to a large family that ranges over many parts of Africa, Asia, and southern Europe (mongoose lower classification). There are several genera and over 40 species of this small mammal. These vary in size from the dwarf mongoose, just over a foot long, to the crab-eating mongoose of southeast Asia, which is four feet long. Most have short legs, long bushy tails, and long bodies covered with thick, coarse fur, gray to brown in color. Their ears are small and their noses usually pointed.[Mongoose npm!]
Some are solitary nocturnal creatures. Others come out in the daytime and are quite sociable, such as the yellow mongoose, which lives in colonies of up to 50. Mongoose habitat? Mainly, rocky crevices or holes in the ground. Sometimes they dig these themselves, but often they simply take over burrows abandoned by other animals. They have even been known to move into empty termite heaps ant-hills.
Mongoose Food: Although the mongoose may look relatively harmless, make no mistake about it: It is a predator-alert, bold, and agile. The diet of some species includes insects, beetles, worms, snails, lizards, frogs, and crabs, as well as eggs and fruit. The mongoose is intelligent and crafty. The banded mongoose, for example, is said to perform the trick of standing erect on it's hind legs and then falling sideways. Why? To cause curious guinea fowl to approach -and be caught! Mongoose db!
It's reputation as a snake killer, though, has given the mongoose it's fame.
Snake Versus Mongoose
But can this tiny creature really defeat a fearsome cobra in the combat? South African writer Laurens van der Post describes a typical mongoose snake encounter in his book The heart of the Hunter: "I have seen [a mongoose], no more than thirteen inches long from head to tail and perhaps only five inches high, take on a six-foot cobra. After a series of adroit and nimble feints wherein the snake repeatedly struck, to miss him by a bare millimeter, he would dash in, seizing the cobra at the back of the neck to bite instantly through it's spine."
It is the supreme confidence and courage of the little mongoose, coupled with it's lightning ability to dodge the strikes of the snake, that enable it to vanquish it's deadly foe.
The Serpent's Bite On the Mongoose
Is the mongoose, though, somehow immune to the serpent's venom? Not entirely. But it takes a large amount of venom to kill a mongoose. One authority says that eight times the lethal dose for a rabbit is required to kill a mongoose. It is rare for a mongoose to die from a snakebite.
More likely is a mongoose to die from eating a poisonous snake! Yes, after killing it's dangerous foe, the victor makes a meal of it, starting with the head. Says The International Wildlife Encyclopedia: "Several [mongooses] have been found dead and post mortem examination has shown that they have eaten a snake whose fangs have punctured the wall of the stomach so that the poison has entered the bloodstream."
However, mongoose snake, while deadly to cobras, are somewhat less successful at killing vipers. For one thing, they do not build up immunity to a viper's venom.
Additionally, vipers are faster than cobras in their ability to strike.
Mongooses As Pets?
Do not conclude, though that the mongoose is innately vicious. On the contrary, some species of mongoose have been domesticated and made lovable, intelligent pets. In Sauce for the Mongoose, author Bruce Kinloch gives a delightful account of his pet, a banded mongoose called Pipa. Full of mischief and lively tricks, Pipa was a constant source of entertainment for the family. One trick -common with mongooses- convulsed the family with laughter the first time they saw it. The author describes what happened:
'Pipa found a round white seashell and maneuvered until he had his back close up against one of our picnic boxes. He took the shell firmly between his fore paws, swayed up and down, backward and forward, all the time swinging the shell in his fore paws, something like a baseball pitcher's preparations for a throw. Suddenly he sprang into the air and flung the seashell backward between his hind legs to smack against the picnic box with a crack like a pistol shot. At last it dawned on us. Pipa, by sheer instinct, was trying to break a seashell in the manner that a mongoose will use to break an egg.'
Our furry friend is thus lovable -and formidable. And though it's occasional role as snake killer may make us cringe a bit, it delights us with it's antics.
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