Mongoose’s Tiny Baby-Like Sounds Are Impossible To Resist
Have you ever heard the sounds a mongoose makes? They're actually pretty adorable, and sound like something that a human baby might make. Ruben Lambrechts cares for orphaned animals in Namibia, Africa. He shared a video on Thursday, March 21st of one of his orphaned mongooses and while the video is short, it's also very sweet!
The video starts with him showing us a tiny baby mongoose named Zoey that seems to be sucking on his finger. He then shows a current video of Zoey all grown up, and she's doing the same thing. Make sure your sound is on so you can hear her adorable little noises!
@Ruben's video totally made me smile! The mongoose almost sounds like it's cooing like a mourning dove or purring like a cat. Viewers thought Zoey was pretty cute, too...they left more than 2,600 comments about the video. @Cora Sheffield exclaimed, "I never knew a mongoose was this cute!!!" and @avaley added, "Welp, add a mongoose to the list of animals I need."
Related: Goose's Reaction to Hearing Gosling Babies for the First Time Is Everything
More About Mongooses
It might sound awkward to say 'mongooses', but that is actually the correct plural form of mongoose according to Treehugger, though some also refer to them as mongeese. I really didn't know anything about them other than the fact that they can kill venomous snakes like cobras, so I did a quick search to see what else I could learn about them.
Mongoose have no problem attacking a venomous snake because they are quick and agile, and easily able to avoid being bitten. But some species of mongoose (there are 30 of them) can be bitten and continue to fight. Treehugger explains, "They've evolved a resistance to neurotoxic snake venom, allowing them to keep fighting even after receiving a bite that would kill most animals their size. They are not immune to the venom, but thanks to special mutations in their nervous system, the neurotoxin is less effective."
Mongoose don't only eat venomous snakes; they will also eat plants even though they are mainly carnivorous. They eat a wide variety of meals including reptile eggs, bird eggs, earthworms, rodents, crabs, birds, and lizards.
Mongooses (and meerkats, a member of the mongoose family) are quite chatty and have a complex way of communicating with each other. Banded mongoose like Zoey for example use calls that sound like simple grunts, but they combine sounds similar to the way we use a consonant and a vowel to form syllables.
Not only are mongooses chatty, but they're also very social. They live in groups known as colonies that can have up to 50 members. Baby mongooses are known as pups or puppies, and a female can have a litter of up to four pups. On the other hand, some mongoose prefer to live alone and only interact with others when it's time to mate.
Whether you are interested in them or not one thing is for certain about mongooses, and that is that they can make some very cute little noises!
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