Indian mongoose
| Indian mongoose | ||||||||||||
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Indian mongoose ( Herpestes edwardsii ) |
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| Herpestes edwardsii | ||||||||||||
| ( É. Geoffroy , 1818) |
The Indian mongoose ( Herpestes edwardsii ) is a species of predator from the mongoose family (Herpestidae). Whenever the "mongoose" is spoken of in general, either this species or the little mongoose are mentioned.
features
Indian mongooses have a head-to-trunk length of 36 to 45 centimeters, plus a 35-centimeter tail. Their weight varies between 0.9 and 1.7 kilograms. Your body is elongated and slender, the limbs are relatively short. Their fur is silver-gray and their legs look a little darker. The tip of the tail is dark red, the head also has a slight red cast.
distribution and habitat
The natural range of the Indian mongoose stretches from the east of the Arabian Peninsula over Afghanistan and Pakistan to the Indian subcontinent . They prefer bushy grasslands as a habitat , but they are not very picky about their habitat.
For pest control reasons, they have been introduced in numerous regions, including the Malay Peninsula , Mauritius , Réunion , the Japanese Ryūkyū Islands, as well as central Italy and Jamaica.
Way of life
Indian mongooses are diurnal animals that usually live as solitary animals, but sometimes stay together as loose family groups. During the day they leave their caves and look for food. This consists of a wide variety of vertebrates such as small mammals, birds, lizards and snakes, but also of insects, scorpions and other invertebrates and fruits. Since mongooses can move at lightning speed, they also attack poisonous snakes, whose attacks they then evade quickly. However, the mongooses are not immune to the snake venom. They let the snake hit again and again, dodging each time, and ultimately the snake is so tired that it can be easily killed. If a mongoose is bitten in a fight like this, the cobra with its short fangs often does not penetrate its thick, bushy fur.
Two or three times a year the female gives birth to two to four young animals after a gestation period of around 60 to 65 days. These are weaned after four to five weeks.
Indian mongooses and people
The Indian mongoose is common and is not an endangered species. The International Union for Conservation of Nature IUCN also lists it as not endangered (“Least Concern”) on the Red List of Endangered Species .
It was carried off by humans to numerous areas of the world where it was not originally found. It was hoped that this would help fight the plague of rats. However, the move created much more serious problems as the mongooses endangered or even wiped out native wildlife in the new areas, broke into hen coops, forged food from humans and transmitted rabies and other diseases. By eating small insectivorous animals, insect pests also increased to a devastating extent.
Since there is often no distinction between the two mongoose species, cultural references can be found under mongoose .
Alfred Brehm reported that the mongoose is also kept as a pet in India. You can find him as a pet in many homes in his home countries. His services, which people like to make use of (protection from snakes, keeping the house free from rats, etc.) he would bring in return for the hospitality shown to him. Brehm goes on to write the following: “He soon becomes friends with people. After a short time he follows his master, eats out of his hand and lives as a pet. ” This relationship between humans and mongooses was also made literary by Rudyard Kipling in his most famous work“ The Jungle Book ”in the short story“ Rikki-tikki-tawi ” processed. The mongoose appears with a negative connotation in Aravind Adiga's novel “The White Tiger”. There the domineering, insidious son of a large landowner was given this nickname: “Mukesh Sir was small, dark, ugly and very cunning. At home in the village we would have called him "the mongoose". "
Individual evidence
- ^ Aravind Adiga: The white tiger, Munich: Verlag CH Beck, 2008, 7th edition 2009, p. 81.
literature
- Ronald M. Nowak: Walker's Mammals of the World . Johns Hopkins University Press, 1999 ISBN 0-8018-5789-9
- Hermann Linder: Linder Biology . Schroedel Verlag GmbH, 1998
- Alfred E. Brehm: The colored Brehm . Herder, 1966
- Rudyard Kipling: The Jungle Book . Insel Taschenbuch, 2006, ISBN 3-458-34869-7
- Aravind Adiga: The White Tiger, Munich: Verlag CHBeck, 2008.
Web links
- Photos and additional information
- Herpestes edwardsii in the endangered Red List species the IUCN 2009. Posted by: Choudhury, A., Wozencraft, C., Muddapa, D., Yonzon, P., Jennings, A. & Geraldine, V., 2008. Retrieved on 26 January 2010.