There’d be plenty for Mongoose to hunt, and nobody’s life in danger. Even a bandersnatch wasn’t much more than a case of indigestion for a boojum. Sanderson started to answer him, but the breeder decided it had had enough. It wheeled toward them, its maw gaping wider, and started through the mounds of garbage and corpses in their direction. She had only a limited amount of patience for his weird interactions with other members of his species and his insistence on waiting, and he’d clearly used it all up.
That was sure a lot of toves, and even a cheshire-cat could get in trouble if she was outnumbered. Ahead of him, a tove warbled and went suddenly dark; had made her first kill. When the faint glow of the toves came into view at the bottom of the pore, he felt her shiver all over, luxuriantly, before she shimmered dark and folded herself tight against his scalp. Irizarry doused his own lights as well, flipping the passive infrared goggles down over his eyes. She slithered up on top of his head, barbels and graspers extended to full length, pulsing slowly in predatory greens and reds.
These animals are opportunistic carnivores that will feed on a huge variety of different foods, whether living or dead. These may include reptiles, small birds and mammals, amphibians, insects, worms, and huffy mountain bike crabs. However, some species will supplement their diets with fruits, vegetables, roots, nuts, and seeds. If the opportunity presents itself, then the animal will steal or feed on another creature’s kill.
You could either be ineffectual or you could piss off your political officer. And her secretary so very obviously didn’t want to bother her that it was easy to say, “We had a contract,” and to plant his feet and smile. It wasn’t the doubled fee she’d promised him, but he didn’t even want that. He’d been about seventy-five percent sure that the rath would stand up on its hind legs when it reached them. Raths weren’t sapient, not like cheshires, but they were smart.
When foraging, several members will stay behind to protect the young. In some colonies, a pup will choose a specific adult to provide regular sustenance and attention. Individuals may even form lifelong bonds with family and/or fellow members of the colony or pack. In the 19th and 20th centuries, human settlers introduced s around the globe — particularly to several oceanic islands such as Hawaii — to help with pest control on plantations and farms. Although mongooses rarely succeeded in this task, it did have the unintended consequence of driving much of the local wildlife — including many unique bird species — to the brink of extinction. For this reason, mongooses are considered to be one of the top invasive species in the world, and some efforts have been made to cull or limit mongoose populations in non-indigenous areas.