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| On a recent visit to George's Place in the Soutpansberg (Northern Province of South Africa) we had the unique opportunity to interact with a troop of semi-tame Banded mongooses (Mungos mungo). Sue and George Rautenbach, the owners of George's Place came to look after some hurt, orphaned or previously tame (having lived in Johannesburg of all places) mongooses. Currently this troop comprises a matriach, Rikki (named after Rudyard Kipling's Rikki Tikki Tavi), the oldest member and quite plump, there are also two young males (which we named Stinky and Nasty) and a younger female (which we named Princess). These are all offspring of Rikki and to our surprise and glee 5 new babies made their appearance on our last day. The troop lives outside in and around the outbuildings of the farmhouse. There are also two visiting wild males that share the troop's den. |  Stinky with the 5 baby mongooses |
 It is a strange new world mom! |
My first encounter with these mongooses was on the day of our arrival while sitting in Sue's garden. Relaxing on a garden chair, Stinky (so named by us because he didn't smell so nice) approached me and, without hesitation, hopped onto my lap and began preening himself. I was totally amazed by this friendly little thing, especially the gentle little claws. He was soon joined by Nasty (also named by us, the reason will become self-arrarent later) on the grass. At this stage Sue told me that I was lucky that Stinky hasn't marked me yet - because this is what they usually do to strangers. If you see them crouching over your foot, this is an indication that you have to remove your foot as quickly as possible. This was out introduction to what was to be a very interesting encounter with these extremely sociable animals for the duration of our 10-day stay at George's Place. |
Banded mongooses belong to the mammalian sub-family Herpestinae. There are 11 species of this sub-family indigenous to South Africa which also includes the Meerkat or Suricate. Banded Mongooses have 10-12 distinctive transverse bands (dark brown to black) stretching from behind the shoulders to the back of the tail. They have elongated features, bushy tails, and purposeful ways. One usually finds banded mongooses in the dry zones of Western and Eastern Africa in open spaces where the grass is short. Males weigh between 400-900 grams while female weigh between 350 - 500 grams. A height of approximately 45 centimetres is reached at maturity with a tail length of 28 centimetres. The lifespan in the wild is approximately 10 years and the captivity record is 17 years. Sue and George haven't had their Mongooses for that long and are not sure what their life spans will be.
 Picture on the left: Rikki with all of the new babies |
During courtship the male chases the female circling her with his tail held high. Sue suspected that Rikki and one of the wild males mated and after a gestation period of approximately 2 months a litter was born in a den underneath the garage building. We could hear their twittering and one member (male or female) of the troop was always missing while it was his or her turn to look after the litter (very modern parents these). Sue noticed them moving three babies from one den site to another a couple of weeks before our arrival. The 2 wild mongooses apparently helped with this task. I was sure that there were more than 3 babies and the on the day we were leaving 5 young ones were brought out to experience their first day out in the brave new world. Litters usually consist of 2 - 6 babies and they are born blind, helpless and resembling small rats. The newborns were suckled by Rikki (the only grown female) and everyone in the troop played an important role looking after the litter. At about 5 weeks of age the young are weaned and we estimated that the 5 brought out by the troop must have been this age approximately. |
Mongooses are highly sociable and usually feed in a group. Their only natural enemies are jackal, hyena, leopard and man. These friendly animals have long non-retractable claws used for digging - which they always seem to be doing. On their first day out of the den the five babies already had this instinctive characteristic. Young animals are always very playful and intelligent. Princess was always playing, biting Sue's toe's, jumping on Stinky's or Nasty's back or just being very inquisitive as to what was going on. They can also be counted among man's friends for normally the species courageously hunt and kill snakes. Sue mentioned to us that she always knows when there is a snake around the farmhouse because the mongooses chatter with heightened excitement. When a Banded Mongoose feels threatened or upset they usually give a hard spit and then energetically defend themselves. This was clearly illustrated when the farm dog, Pablo (a cross Rhodesian Ridgeback and Bull Mastif), and the Mongooses had a disagreement about territory. When Rupert (Pablo's son) came visiting the farm and dared to come into the backyard (the Mongooses territory), Nasty would ferociously spit and puff out the hair on his back and then charge Rupert until he ran away, tail between his legs.
When hunting or attacking their prey, their mannerisms resemble those of a domestic cat, namely stalking the prey, crouching, and then dashing out to inflict a bite. Nasty, so named after this incident, one day crouched down while I was playing with his brother, Stinky, dashed out and bit me on my hand. It took me a while to convince him that I wasn't his prey. These young males were obviously also in their "adolescent" years and were marking their territory constantly. This is done by rubbing the ground, rocks and logs with anal gland secretions.
Contact between the members of the troop is maintained by a constant twittering. When danger presents itself this twittering becomes louder and more urgent.
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Mongooses eat insects, larvae, small rodents, frogs and birds eggs! They quite apparently have this 'thing' for eggs. 'Our'
family of Mongooses loved hen eggs. Rikki would go absolutely crazy if she saw we had some
eggs for them, and although plump, would jump approximately a metre into the air trying to
snatch them from us. On one occasion she had three whole eggs to herself. It is very interesting to note
the way the mongooses break open eggs. The egg is taken behind the two front paws, moving
backwards until it breaks on a stone. It was also interesting that the 2 wild mongooses didn't have
the same skills as the tame ones in terms of breaking eggs. They weren't as adept with this. Pictures on the right: Princess eating an egg! |
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Sue usually feeds them 2 chicken hearts each in the morning and they forage themselves to make up the rest of their requirements. Sue, at this stage, is synonymous with food especially at certain times of the day. If she comes out of the house in the mornings and evenings the Mongooses dart straight for her jumping and twittering excitedly. Banded Mongooses usually have several shelters. This was obvious from our troop of Mongooses and Sue remarked that the garage and some of the outbuildings will collapse sooner or later because they have tunnelled extensively below.
I can't wait to get feedback from Sue about how the young mongooses are faring!
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