Mongooses mostly feed on insects, crabs, earthworms, lizards, birds, and rodents. However, they also eat eggs and carrion.
The Indian gray mongoose and others are well known for their ability to fight and kill venomous snakes, particularly cobras. They are adept at such tasks due to their agility, thick coats, and specialized acetylcholine receptors that render them resistant or immune to snake venom.However, they typically avoid the cobra and have no particular affinity for consuming its meat. Although mongooses readily attack snakes, they have extreme difficulty in combating vipers and constrictors. Cobras and other elapids lose fighting energy through their intense bluff, and will end up easy to overpower. Constrictors and vipers, however, attack faster and more powerfully, so the mongoose would end up losing.
Some species can learn simple tricks. They can be semi-domesticated and are kept as pets to control vermin. However, they can be more destructive than desired; when imported into the West Indies to kill rats, they destroyed most of the small, ground-based fauna. For this reason, it is illegal to import most species of mongooses into the United States, Australia, and other countries. Mongooses were introduced to Hawaii in 1883 and have had a significant negative effect on native species.
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