Imagine the wild African savannah, home to one of the most unusual and fearsome creatures in the animal kingdom, this fearsome predator that fears no one. Small, agile and fearless snake fighter. You are on the channel Animal Instinct. And today we will go on an amazing journey to witness the incredible courage and agility of the mongoose in action from epic fights with cobras that could become the subject of legends to deadly duels with poisonous scorpions and even lions.
We will show you why the Mongoose rightfully deserves the title of Master of Survival. As always, I ask you to rate this video and subscribe to the channel if you have not already done so and we are already getting started looking at this small animal. You would not say that it is a formidable hunter, a small muzzle, a long body covered with short hair and very short paws.
Who can be offended by such a baby? However, one cannot help but note the external resemblance to Martens, and this family has repeatedly shown what it is capable of. But mongooses belong to the Varadi family, allocated to its subfamily Mongo today. Sounds proud, doesn't it? The size of the animals is not impressive. The largest species do not exceed £11.
Most mongooses weigh about £7. And if you consider that they settled in Africa and Asia, then with such a size, the mongoose has enough enemies. But these animals quickly figured out what was what and put together a real group. Such a colony can have up to 30 individuals and up to five generations of animals, the backbone of which are relatives.
As a rule, such a family is led by an alpha female who is responsible for safety and prosperity. But it happens that the group has no clear leader and they are. The rights of all members are equal for their home. Mongooses love to use abandoned termite mounds in which they make a developed system of tunnels and passages. They are good at digging holes, and in this business, long straight claws on their paws come in handy.
Such housing will easily protect both from bad weather and from predators, although it also has to be repaired quite often. Usually this is done by the entire colony. Sometimes mongooses can use old stumps and hollow logs for a home. Guards are always posted along the perimeter who can warn of danger or engage in battle. After all, gangs of mongooses often raid neighbors and they can kill all the cubs in the colony.
In addition, a predator can get into the territory and it is impossible to do without guards here. And at this time, the rest of the family is usually hunting. Mongooses eat everything they find under their feet. Small beetles, insects, centipedes, scorpions. Everything goes. And if someone is lucky enough to find an egg or a snail, then it's a real delicacy.
The whole gang immediately runs to the lucky animal. They even learn to break such hard objects, hitting them against a tree or a rock. No less interesting is the process of replenishing the group with new fighters. During the mating season, males and females split into pairs. Now the males become bodyguards and do not let anyone get close to the chosen one.
But as soon as he gets distracted, for example, for food as the female will immediately try to run away to another admirer. Mongooses have developed a unique family planning system. All females in the colony synchronize the birth of children and do it on the same day. Each of them can have up to six cubs. They are born very small, blind.
And only after three weeks do they emerge from the hole for the first time. Each member of the gang must sniff all the cubs and do something else. Thus, they will unmistakably distinguish their cubs from strangers. Now each new fighter is assigned a guardian who looks after the child until they reach three months of age. And it is not always the biological parent.
If it were not for such a system, then the mortality rate of young animals would be much higher than the current 25%. When it is time to go hunting, one of the mongooses is appointed as a nanny. They put several guards and the rest go for food. They like to make their raids when there are elephants nearby. Firstly, few would dare to attack mongooses with such guards.
