Baby Mongoose

One of the few wild animals (other than birds) on the island is the mongoose. The mongoose was introduced to Hawaii in the 1880s to control rats (also an introduced species) in the sugar cane fields. Although mongooses do eat rodents, rats are nocturnal, and the mongooses are diurnal, so they have little impact on the rat population. They do, however, eat birds and bird eggs and have devastated many native bird populations.

The mongooses are very shy and usually stay well hidden in the vegetation. We occasionally see them running across the street.

I spotted this baby mongoose walking across the yard in the open. I suspect it got separated from its mother.