Cape Grey Mongoose

Winter is a difficult time for some of our garden visitors.  The creatures, such as the Grey Mongoose live in burrows which often get flooded out by heavy rainstorms. They are diurnal creatures and we’re fortunate to spot them fairly frequently, although they’re a little shy of posing for photos.  An adult pair lives in the vicinity and we watch out each year for their young which are born from August to December.   The youngsters are playful and at times we see them dashing after the young dassies which are equally up to a game of tag.   It’s interesting to see different species interacting.An adult Cape Grey Mongoose with young.  They are not afraid of humans and can become quite tame.     Recently I spotted one hunting in the penguin sanctuary and wondered whether it would raid nests for the eggs.   Once the penguins picked up on the intruder they set up a huge racket, no chance of getting past those vigilant parents.

7 thoughts on “Cape Grey Mongoose

  1. Lovely shots, they are bigger than I expected. I thought I saw one in Hawaii years ago, and it was tiny. They look like they could be quite fierce tho!

    1. Thanks for the comment… I think those in Hawaii are the Asian (as of the Rikki Tikki Tavi variety), brought in from India to control rats etc in the sugar plantations. There’re eleven different species here including the comical suricates (meerkat). Good hunters, think they would stand up to snakes.

    1. Good sighting; glad it was a successful streak – too many slower moving creatures land up as road kill. BTW UCT is compiling a MamalMap – interesting work, putting up trap cameras to record what’s left on our peninsula

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