Here’s a story of a baby mongoose, who was not really a pet but spent a day of its short life with me. On our trip to the Himachal we stayed for 4 days at a beautiful place called Jia. The snow-clad Dhaulagiri in our backyard and lush greenery all around, we were having the time of our life - taking long walks on winding mountainous roads, stopping every so often to click a breathtaking view or a bird flitting around. On one such after dinner walk I heard short shrill shrieks from the small clumps of foliage growing along the rocky lane. As we were not carrying a torch we couldn’t make out what it was but it was clearly an animal in distress. I thought perhaps a frog or toad has been caught by a snake so I left it at that. Early next morning I went to check the same place and found this brown rat like creature lying barely breathing almost frozen in the cold . I picked it up and put it in a small carton, wrapped in a face towel, in the guesthouse room. The warmth of the room revived it a little so I got some warm milk from the guest house kitchen and tried to feed it with a ball of cotton wool. Shortly the little fellow, who we named Browny because of his shiny brown coat, was moving around on the lawn and making spitting sounds when anyone went near him showing his wild side.
Browny being fed
Sleepy head!
The gardener identified Browny to be a mongoose and also informed us that he had other siblings quite near the place I had found him. Was I happy to know that because I was wondering what to do with him since we were travelling the next day. I was hopeful his family will be happy too to get him back from the dead. Well sure enough, we found Browny’s mother and two siblings near a big rock and I put Browny close to it. Unfortunately the story does not end there. We saw Browny atop the rock going after his mother letting out his now familiar shrieks, but apparently he failed to impress her, for when we returned in the evening from Dharmashala we found the poor fellow lying dead. I felt heartbroken but rationalized that nature has its own rules and instinctively the mongoose mother knew that she could raise just two of the three babies properly. So, poor Browny gave up his life to give his siblings a better chance at survival. I, of course, wondered how the mother mongoose chose which baby to abandon. The other two were a dusky grey shade and Browny was reddish brown. He was really much cuter. They say in the animal kingdom the mother abandons or kills the weakest baby, but I thought Browny was quite robust having survived a cold mountain night without food or warmth. I still wonder sometimes!
Browny inspired me to find out more about mongooses and their habits.
Fact file:
Mongooses (mangus in Marathi) are closely related to cats. Belongs to the Herpestes ichneumon family which resembles the weasel tribe in form and habits. The ancient Egyptians called the mongoose Pharaoh’s Rat because it killed rats and venerated it because it destroyed crocodile eggs. But it is best known as a killer of venomous snakes. Civets and genets belong to the same group, but they are more cat-like animals. It can attack and kill cobras and has to rely on its speed and dexterity because it is not immune to the snakes’ poison. When the mongoose sees a snake it bristles and darts to the attack at once. It catches the snake by the head and breaks its neck with its teeth, and then it eats the snake. The Banded Mongoose is found in India where it has always been held in esteem as a snake killer. It is smaller than the Egyptian mongoose – up to 19 1/2 inches (the Egyptian being 39 inches) in length but an equally good snake killer. This is the species that Rudyard Kipling wrote about in his Jungle Book and immortalized as Rikki Tikki Tavi. The Banded Mongoose was introduced into West Indies, Hawaii and Fiji for rat control on plantations. However, when a species is introduced into a new environment, it often upsets the natural balance. An introduced predator may prey on animals that have no effective defenses. Sure enough the mongoose has taken a high toll of native wildlife in these countries. Some of the birds/animals endangered/driven towards extinction by it were the Hawaiian duck, the St. Lucia wren, St. Lucia forest thrush, Puerto Rico whippoorwill, Martinique brown trembler, and the Fijian banded iguana. Although some varieties of Mongoose prefer to remain solitary,the banded mongoose lives in packs of 15-20. It hides and breeds in nests called warrens mostly made in rocky nooks and crevices. As it is a predator a mongoose may not be the ideal or easiest of pets, however, if I had found Browny nearer home I would have definitely tried to provide it a home till he could fend for himself.
Article written and researched by Sumita
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