Mongoose and their Diet
...tles, grubs, larvae, and spiders (1). Methods of Feasting Although they often cooperate in hunting, adults generally do share food. They will, however, collect and carry insects to the young (1). When they forage, they keep in contact with short chirrup calls, one of many vocalizations they use (1). Some mongooses range over large distances in search of food. On the Serengeti short grass plains in Tanzania, packs of Banded mongoose range over approximately 5.8 sq. mi. and may travel over 5.6 mi. a day in the dry season (3). Where food sources are abundant and population density is high, ranges and distances of travel are considerably smaller. Banded mongooses in Ruwenzori Park, Uganda, use ranges averaging less than .4 sq. mi. and travel about 1.2 mi. a day (3). Their feet have four or five digits each tipped by long, non-retractable claws adapted for digging (3). The mongoose sniffs along the surface of the ground and when it finds an insect it either snaps it up from the surface or it digs it from its underground home (3). Consequences of Their Diet Mongooses are so fast and agile that they can out-jump a strike from an adder, duck when spat at by a cobra, and grasp a serpent's throat before it can say "riki-tiki-tavi" Coupled with its speed and courage is the fact the mongoose has a high tolerance to the venom of the snake. It takes about 8 times the lethal dose of a snake bite for a rabbit, to kill a mongoose (2). The mongoose is more than a match for the cobra, but the viper is another story. For some reason the mongoose does not build up immunity to the viper’s venom. Additionally, the viper is much faster than the cobra in it’s ability to strike (2). More than a few mongoose have been felled, however, by feas...