Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff production of I Heart Radio. Hey
Speaker 1: brain Stuff, Lauren bog Obam Here. There aren't very many
Speaker 1: animals out there that could fight a king cobra and
Speaker 1: eat it for dinner, but a mongoose is one of them.
Speaker 1: Before we go any further, let's talk about mongooses in general.
Speaker 1: Have you ever seen a mongoose? There are twenty nine
Speaker 1: species of them, and not all of them look the same,
Speaker 1: but they are all long bodied, short eared, sort of
Speaker 1: weasily looking animals. They aren't very closely related to weasels, though.
Speaker 1: If you're an animal in the order Carnivora, which is
Speaker 1: the order of mammals that are mostly carnivorous and have
Speaker 1: teeth adapted for flesh eating, you can either be on
Speaker 1: team dog or team cat. Weasels are related to dogs,
Speaker 1: and however much mongooses look like weasels, they are firmly
Speaker 1: on team cat. In fact, a mere cat is a
Speaker 1: type of mongoose, and cat is right there in its name.
Speaker 1: Mongoose is living colonies, and most species live in Africa,
Speaker 1: although one species, the Javan mongoose, has been introduced to
Speaker 1: Europe and has also wreaked havoc and ecosystems all over
Speaker 1: the world, especially on islands like Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and Jamaica.
Speaker 1: Although mongooses are small, they're bright, feisty, and what scientists
Speaker 1: call non discriminatory predators. That is, if they can catch
Speaker 1: it or kill it, they'll eat it up to and
Speaker 1: including venomous snakes, and an animal like that can do
Speaker 1: a lot of damage on an island. But how can
Speaker 1: it be that a skinny mongoose can take on one
Speaker 1: of the most venomous snakes in the world, like the
Speaker 1: hulking king cobra, whose venom can kill an adult human
Speaker 1: and around thirty minutes. The grudge match was popularized in
Speaker 1: red Yard Kipling's short story Ricky Tiki Tavy, But that's
Speaker 1: not the only time a mongoose has contributed to popular culture.
Speaker 1: A Hindu fable about a mongoose in a snake dates
Speaker 1: back to at least three hundred b C. And in
Speaker 1: the nineteen thirties Only on the Isle of Man claimed
Speaker 1: a talking mongoose named Jeff spelled Gef by the way,
Speaker 1: lived in their walls by turns, threatening them, protecting them,
Speaker 1: killing rabbits for their dinner, and telling them jokes. The
Speaker 1: story became a tabloid sensation, and the paranormal investigation that
Speaker 1: resulted is the subject of a recent book called Jeff,
Speaker 1: The Strange Tale of an extra Special Talking Mongoose. In
Speaker 1: the real world, a few specialized traits have allowed mongooses
Speaker 1: to add venomous snakes to their list of entrees. First starters,
Speaker 1: mongooses are quick and agile, and have strong jaws and
Speaker 1: thick hides to block those pointy cobra fangs. They also
Speaker 1: don't mind rushikan cobra, which is, in spite of its
Speaker 1: size and extravagantly toxic venom, actually very shy and uninterested
Speaker 1: in tangling with anybody. If King Cobra's made lists, humans
Speaker 1: and mongooses would be at the very top of these
Speaker 1: snakes avoid list. But mongooses have another advantage body chemistry.
Speaker 1: It's not impossible bowl for a mongoose to get sick
Speaker 1: or even die from a cobra byte, but their bodies
Speaker 1: make a glycoprotein that binds to the proteins in cobra venom,
Speaker 1: so a moderate amount of snake venom won't hurt them.
Speaker 1: They are fascinating creatures mongooses, but best left to their
Speaker 1: own devices. If you live in the United States, you
Speaker 1: definitely can't have one as a pet. They are prohibited
Speaker 1: animals in every state except Hawaii, where they've been upgraded
Speaker 1: to the designation of dangerous invasive species. Islands really are
Speaker 1: delicate ecosystems. In Hawaii, even the decidedly less bitey hummingbird
Speaker 1: is prohibited because of the havoc it could wreak on
Speaker 1: pineapple pollination. Today's episode was written by Jesselyn Shields and
Speaker 1: produced by Tyler Clang. Brain Stuff is production of iHeart
Speaker 1: Radio's How Stuff Works. For more on this and lots
Speaker 1: of other topics, visit our home planet, how stuff Works
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