Hunting & Feeding
- While they might look cute and cuddly, mongooses are actually fierce predators. Although they’re famous for hunting venomous snakes—which they’re able to do quite successfully, as they’re quick and agile—their diet has a great deal of variety. They also hunt for a range of other reptiles, as well as small mammals, birds, and even fish and crustaceans. Certain species are omnivorous and also eat some vegetable matter, such as roots, fruits and tubers.
Social Behaviors
- While some mongoose species are solitary, most live in colonies. The average colony is made up of roughly 20 individuals, but some contain up to 50. Those who live in groups will take turns being sentinels. The sentinels stand on their hind legs on higher ground, looking all around them for danger. If they spot a potential threat, they’ll let out an alarm call that lets the rest of the colony members know they should retreat to safety.
Making Homes
- Most types of mongoose are terrestrial—living on the ground—but some are semiarboreal or semiaquatic, spending some of their time in the trees or in the water, respectively. Even the latter kinds of species nest and seek shelter in burrows or tunnels. While some species dig complex tunnel networks, the majority simply find burrows that have been made and abandoned by other creatures. Those who build their own tunnels will dig complex networks of burrows with several exits, making it easier for them to escape danger.
Mating and Reproduction
- Mongooses have no set breeding season; instead they can mate at any time of year as long as they’re healthy and well nourished. Those who are ready to mate will make a sound known as “giggling” to alert members of the opposite sex. Some species will also use scent marking around their territory to signal their readiness to reproduce. Once they’ve found a mate, they’ll often breed with this same partner for years to come. After mating, the females carry their young for a number of weeks—the exact gestation period varies among species—before giving birth to their litter in a den or burrow.
How does a mongoose protect itself?
Teeth and Claw Combination
- When mongooses feel frightened and nervous, they sometimes respond by lying down on the ground, flat on their backs. When they do this, they’re free to employ the combination of their teeth and claws to protect themselves — all while simultaneously shielding the napes of their necks. This defense typically occurs when mongooses feel like they have no other option to get out of the perilous situation, however.
Fake Outs
- Some mongooses use “fake outs” as self-protection, specifically slender-tailed meerkats (Suricata suricatta) and banded mongooses (Mungos mungo). They both move their bodies as a means of making their opponents incorrectly think that they’re about to lunge to the front. Slender-tailed meerkats move upward and downward, while banded mongooses repeatedly sway to the left and then back to the right.
Curling Up
- Indian gray mongooses (Herpestes edwardsii) deal with dangerous situations by curling their bodies up into tight ball shapes, not too unlike hedgehogs. Their lumbar vertebrae are useful in that they have particularly strong and wide transverse processes. When Indian gray mongooses roll their bodies up, their opponents can only access these sturdy backbones — voila, reliable protection.
Hiding Out
- Mongooses also often opt to go classic when it comes to protecting themselves. Slender mongooses (Galerella sanguinea) are one such example. When they feel alarmed or scared, they typically escape into burrows, either ones they created on their own or ones that were previously established by aardvarks.
Attempts to Look Bigger
- Mongooses occasionally try to scare away danger by trying to make their bodies look bigger and therefore more intimidating. This defensive behavior is prevalent in slender-tailed meerkats. They typically proceed by dropping their heads down, rounding their backs and elevating their tails. This behavior is usually accompanied by other menacing “go away” signs, including spitting and snarling. Many mongooses defend themselves using the power of numbers — or “mobs.” When several mongooses all use these defensive tactics at the same time, they’re “mobbing.”
Typical Predators
- Mongooses, like most other animals, deal with the perils of predators regularly. Some of their most prominent enemies are jackals, hawks, leopards, snakes and honey badgers.
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