July 28, 1893.] 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



69 



fistam. 



THE MUNGOOSE IN JAMAICA. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



I HAVE read "Arefar's" letter in your issue of May Sfi, 

 and would have replied to your request somewhat earlier 

 but that an accident placed me fiors de combat for nearly 

 three weeks. 



If "Arefar" and his Calif ornian friends will take what 

 I may term experienced ad- 

 vice, he and they will let 

 vrell alone, and keep at as 

 great a distance as possible 

 that to xis ubiquitous pest, 

 Herpestes iclmeumon. 



Tue mungoose was intro- 

 duced into this island for 

 the ostensible purpose of de- 

 stroying the large, gray, 

 white-bellied rat, that played 

 havoc with the growing 

 canes on the sugar-making 

 plantations. That they fairly 

 achieved the object for 

 which they were imported 

 cannot be gainsaid, but that 

 "they would ever become the 

 universal pest that they ai-e 

 at the present day, and have 

 been for the last ten years, 

 was never anticipated. So 

 long as they kept to the 

 cane-growing plantations 

 and ate the planter's poul- 

 try, eggs and all young and 

 available animal life within 

 a reasonable distance, all 

 went well; but with its rapid 

 and prolific powers of repro- 

 duction, and its vagabond 

 and roaming disposition, it 

 in a very short time — a few 

 years — was to be found in 

 every part of the island, 

 froni the sea shore to the 

 tops of our loftiest range of 

 mountains, the highest peak 

 of which runs up to 7,360ft. 

 above sea level. 



I have had a long and in- 

 timate acquaintance with 

 the mungoose, that is since 

 its first introduction, just 

 about twenty years ago. In 

 a brochure written some six 



or seven years since on agricultural matters, at the in- 

 stance of'a leading local society, that on Commerce and 

 Agriculture, I drew attention to the mungoose, its greatly 

 increased numbers, area covered, and the devastation it 

 was accomplishing, not only to young animal life alone, 

 but to vegetation. Toward the end of 1889, at the request 

 of the editor of one of our 

 foremost metropolitan dai- 

 lies, I again drew attention 

 to the mungoose question. 

 This article served the pur- 

 pose in view, and brought to 

 our newspapers letters from 

 all parts of the island, all of 

 which complained most bit- 

 terly of the mungoose and 

 the damage it was causing 

 everywhere. The general 

 wail had the desired effect, 

 and a commission was ap- 

 pointed by the local govern- 

 ment to inquire into and re- 

 port upon Herpestes. When 

 the commission sat I was the 

 first summoned, and I stated 

 what I knew of the animal, 

 its habits, life, food, etc. 

 Very many gentlemen were 

 called and gave evidence, 

 and with one solitary excep- 

 tion — a cane cultivator and 

 sugar boiler — their voices 

 were raised against this new 

 and introduced pest. I have 

 not a report of the mun- 

 goose commission, but if one 

 is to be had it shall be sent 

 on. 



The mungoose, as I have 

 said, was introduced to de- 

 stroy the cane rat. It has 

 by no manner of means de- 

 stroyed those rats, but it has 

 lessened their number in the 

 cane fields, and saved the 

 sugar planters a lot of 

 money. It was not intro- 

 duced to destroy, but it has 

 most effectually nearly ex- 

 terniinated all our ground 

 laying and feeding birds, our 

 poultry, eggs of all kinds on 



the ground and in trees, including those of the land tur- 

 tle; it kills young pigs, lambs, kids: eats fruits of all 

 kinds; canes, ground provisions, fish, wildfowl, snakes 

 (ours are, or rather were, harmless), lizards, crabs, etc. 

 All young and tender life, animal and vegetable, is in- 

 cluded in its menu of daily fare. 



It has been said, when folks here knew but little of its 

 habits, that the mungoose does not climb, and that he is 

 only a day forager. Neither assertion is correct, for the 

 animal will climb into a tree that would try the agility 

 and pluck of a young descendent of Ethiopia, and during 

 the beautiful moonlit nights, that one only experiences 

 in the tropics, the mungoose will take his walks abroad 

 intent on destruction of some kind. A¥hen up a tree he 

 will destroy the eggs or young of birds, taking them from 

 the nest, or eat the fruit that may be ripe. He does not 

 kill our domestic or dark-furred rat, and I am aware of 



an instance in which a mungoose and two of these rata 

 found a common home or lodging place in the hollow 

 trunk of a fallen tree. This, however, must be taken as 

 a rare exception. 



We had in this island a beautiful and indigenous snake, 

 a friend to the agriculturist, the Cliilobothrus inornatus, 

 commonly called the yellow snake, and growing to a 

 length of 6 and 7ft. It is gone; love or money cannot 

 procure an individual, at least I have not been able to 

 obtain a specimen for a snake fancier friend living across 

 the big water, although I have been trying for the last 

 three or four years. Another friend of the l^nd cultiva- 



MRS. WOODCOCK'S HOME. 

 From a Photooraph bt &. E. Jaquins. 

 (Forest and Stream Amateur Photography Competition.) 



tor, the ground lizard (Ameiva dorsalis), is gone. I have 

 seen but one individual during the last five years; form- 

 erly they might be seen by the hundred in every mile of 

 ground covered. 



When he has cleared off the animal life and the fruit 

 in a district, the mungoose turns his attention to the 



MRS. WOODCOCK AT HOME. 

 From a Photograph by Or. E. JAQmNg. 

 Forest and Stream Amateur Photography Competition.) 



ground provisions, and here again he shows the variety 

 of his taste and the power of his jaws. He will gi-ovel 

 away with his paws until he lays bare yams, cocoas 

 (Alocasia) sweet potatoes, cassava, bitter and sweet (the 

 former, Manibot titilissima, poisonous in its raw and un- 

 prepared state), and other ground food bulbs. Of fruit 

 he has a partiality for the banana, the various Ananas, 

 the mango and others, as well as for some of our tree 

 vegetables, for instance the delicious akee (Cupania 

 edtdis) and pear {Pias cauUjlora) et hoc genus omne. 



The mungoose will destroy fish, and when our irriga- 

 tion canals are drawn off for cleaning, he will seize the 

 fish and make off with them. 



Beside the destruction to animal and vegetable life, not 

 the least harm it has done has been by the destruction of 

 insectivorous birds and lizards, and the great increase of 

 another nuisancfi, the tick. Here is a suhjeci that our 



local government is bound to take up in the near future, 

 and there is or will be found only one remedy, the intro- 

 duction, propagation and protection of insect-eating 

 birds. (Would that we could exchange with you the 

 mungoose for the sparrow). 



Herpestes breeds about six to eight times in each year, 

 and I have never known of more than five young at one 

 time, but upon this point opinions differ, one eminent 

 local doctor of medicine (and a naturalist) stated before 

 the commission that the young numbered ten to eleven. 

 The mungoose lives in the hollows of dead trees, dry 

 walls and other such places. His activity is wonderful, 

 and it is a treat to see him 

 leap at and secure a young 

 fowl; he very seldom misses 

 the quarry, which, when 

 secured, he proceeds to mu- 

 tilate in the groin, first of 

 all drinking the warm blood, 

 then devouring the liver, 

 etc. With all his activity 

 and pluck— and he is plucky 

 -=-he is no match against a 

 good terrier, and those who 

 wish to rear a few chickens 

 must and do keep two or 

 more terriers. The mun- 

 goose is cunning and saga- 

 cious; in fact he is highly 

 educated. I have seen one 

 abstract an egg from a hen*s 

 nest, take it up with the 

 forepaws, hug it to its heart 

 and walk off on its hind legs. 

 Here is an instance in proof 

 of its intelligence and rea- 

 soning power. The narra- 

 tive comes to me first hand 

 from a gentleman holding 

 the commission of the peace 

 and not given to Munch- 

 hausenism. My friend, who 

 is the owner of one of our 

 principal coastal wharves, 

 and his own wharfinger, 

 told me that his premises 

 are overrun with mungoose, 

 against which he wages a 

 perpetual war. He had 

 noticed for a considerable 

 time, as he sat in his office, 

 an old buck constantly trav- 

 eling to and fro between a 

 log wood heap and the large 

 ■warehouse. His constant 

 perambulations had worn a 

 distinct track on the sandy 

 soil. Afraid to have re- 

 course to his gun in such a place, he provided a new 

 sprmg trap, upon the lever platform of which he tied, as 

 well as he could, an egg, and when the employees had 

 drawn oft" for the midday meal he excavated a hole in the 

 track, placed therein the trap, which he covered over 

 with loose sand, leaving only the egg exposed, and after 

 making all smooth retired 

 to his office to watch. Ere 

 long out came Herpestes, 

 "who commenced a series of 

 maneuvers as comical as 

 they were cunning. After 

 reconnoitering by some half , 

 dozen circular evolutions he 

 gradually approached the 

 egg, and with his fore pawa 

 commenced to scratch the 

 sand away about 6 or 7in. 

 from the egg. A part of 

 the trap soon became ex- 

 posed, when a few runs 

 round doubtless expressed 

 his satisfaction at outwitt^ 

 ing the wharfinger. The 

 excavating and circular per- 

 ambulations continued until 

 the trap was undermined on 

 the one side, when, losing 

 its equilibrium, it fell into 

 the miniature pit, the egg 

 rolled off and was immedi- 

 ately carried away by the 

 intelligent but destructive 

 little animal. 



The mungoose is easily 

 trapped, and it is a strange 

 circumstance connected 

 with its capture that very 

 few females are taken or 

 killed, perhaps one in twen^ 

 ty. This would lead to the 

 conclusion that either the 

 males are greatly in excess 

 of the females, or that the 

 latter stay at home to super- 

 intend the domestic arrange- 

 ments and the family. 



However interesting the 

 mungoose may be from a 

 natural history point of 

 view, the fact remains that 

 it has overrun every part of 

 Jamaica, has done and is doing incalculable damage in 

 every direction. 



The question may be asked, "Is it not possible to ex- 

 terminate them ?" The answer is handy in the negative. 

 On the plains and in cultivated districts they may be par- 

 tially kept down; in the hills, in the rocky, inaccessible 

 and uncultivated districts, never. Here they are and 

 here they are going to remain until the last trump sounds. 



I have written no exaggerated account of the life of 

 Herpestes iclmeumon in Jamaica, but the facts experience 

 has brought to my notice and note book. "Arefar" and 

 his friends had better leave their gophers, squirrels, quail 

 and poultry, and the mungoose alone, 

 JAMAICA, w. I., July 4. Edward M. Earle. 



Chained to business? Cant go fishing? Make the 

 best of it. Read Forest and Stream. 



