Close encounters

We have received lots of rain in the last year, thus our summer has become longer than usual. The bush is very green and the weather very hot, and with it comes a massive number of insects. One day tracker, Law, spotted a dwarf mongoose (Helogale parvula). They are insectivorous and their diet also includes snakes, birds and eggs. Our guests were very happy when they saw them and to hear them vocalising, Twitters, whistles and chucks could be heard coming from the long grass.

Suddenly they were all standing on their back legs with their heads poking out over the grass. One whistled hard and all of them ran in one direction. Law spotted the head of a snake sticking out of the long grass. It was slowly heading towards the mongooses. It was unmistakably a black mamba that Law spotted!

We were surprised to see then hear a mongoose whistle and all of them started running towards the mamba. They were surrounding the snake and moving backwards and forwards when the snake put its head down. At this point the mongooses were vocalising loudly and ran back a few centimetres. It was quiet for a few seconds.

Then the head of the snake was up and they started vocalising again. All of them ran into a nearby termite mound. As the grass was long, we never saw that snake again. Only one mongoose was still vocalising loudly on top of the termite mound while the snake vanished into the long grass. It was fascinating to see that dwarf mongooses always stick together as a group and they can save each other thanks to the power of communication.