Scientific name:
Herpestes edwardsi

Natural spread:
Africa, Asia, Europe

the Mangusten, Mungos or Ichneumons is spread in Africa, Southern Europe and southeast-Asia with 10 types and approximately 30 types. The Indian Mungo shows a length of 45-50 cm and a tail-length of 38-41 cm. its fur is long, rough and gray with a silver-dreads Ãœberflug. Head and legs are dark. At the nacktsohligen feet, five each sit bekrallte toes powerfully, whose claws are not re-ductile. Like finished Mangusten doesn't possess the Mungo any dam-glands. its anus finishes in an anus-bag, in which also anal-bags lead.

Way of life its extraordinary knowledge owes very similar African Ichneumon to it the Mungo also like this its skillful fights with snakes, as whose Vertilger estimated it and because of which it was abandoned also in foreign habitats unfortunately. So, it wiped out many native types of animal, that were not adjusted to it as an enemy, on the Antilles-islands.

Mungos prefer light forests, bush and savannas as well as dry and sandy gravel-surfaces as residence. they avoid dense Urwälder. they live individually, often however also in larger family-associations. As Tagtiere, they spend the nights in Erdhöhlen, that it Z. T. dig even. Here, the females bring to all seasons 2 - 4 kids to the world after 8-9 weeks of Tragzeit.

Mungos can climb extraordinarily deft ground-animals, who properly also sent, however. they move very nimble and reaction-fast. Not least, this is also the prerequisite for its successful fights with poison-snakes. However, Mungos live exclusively from these reptiles in no way but take all sorts of animal food to itself, from the most different insects over worms and snails up to birds and their eggs as well as mammals until hare-size. The Mungo makes itself as an invader in house-poultry-attitudes not exactly popular with the people, is tolerated as annihilators of damaging Nager, however.

Snake-fights In many stories, the "heroic courage" of the Mungos is glorified its insensibility to snake-poison portrayed and simultaneous in the fight with poison-snakes. As the truth also is combined with imaginative exaggeration with some portrayals here. The Mungo is very well adjusted in its behavioral-repertoire to the type of the attack of snakes so that only little risk is contained in these fights for it. Add its very fast reaction, that is that of a reptile well, on top of this.

In the fight with a cobra, the Mungo goes many times from the snake in the hit-area and tires these in such a way that it can finally install its deadly bite. One must know to it that that the cobra with the fore part of its body straightens up, pursues all movements of its opponent and finally the raised body-part of the whole length on the ground in direction of the opponent, in order to install the deadly bite, beats. Be the Mungo within the hit-area, the snake cannot bite it since it can shorten the knocking down body-end no more. So the Mungo is relatively sure and can for his part finally install its deadly head or neck-bite.

If however, the Mungo is bitten once, so its dense fur holds the impact of the teeth open mostly so that the poison doesn't reach in most cases into its body. The poison-resistance is additional with the Mungo six times higher than for example with the rabbit.