Crab-eating mongoose in Lawachhara National Park

Lawachara National Park in Kamalganj upazila of Moulvibazar is a mixed evergreen forest. One winter morning, I sighted 44 different species of butterflies, 10 species of birds and three species throughout the day. At the beginning of the afternoon, I sighted two rare birds, the rufous treepie (dhusar harichanca) and the endangered red-headed trogon. But I couldn’t take any picture of trogon since it was in a deep bamboo cluster. I didn't see any mammal, though a day earlier there had been a monkey -- Phayre's langur -- and an orange-bellied Himalayan squirrel.

After a cup of tea at a stall at the hilltop, I descended to the stream beneath the railway bridge in the afternoon sunlight. I took snaps of several species of birds and butterflies. The day was about to end, the afternoon was nearly over. I ascended a bit crossing the stream. I arrived in front of a big tree and saw something moving beside a nearby bush. Instantly I hid behind the tree trunk and readied by camera. An animal was cautiously moving in the bush. I waited for some time but the animal sensed our presence and didn’t come to the stream. I didn’t take the risk and took two or three clicks pictures quickly, but these were unclear. Since we didn’t see the animal coming to the stream after waiting for about ten minutes, we left for the hotel in Srimangal.

It was a rare crab-eating mongoose (kankrabhuk beji). It is an endangered species. Its scientific name is herpestes urva and is a species of the herpestidae family.

The species of crab-eating mongoose in Bangladesh are stocky and thickset. Its body is 36 to 52 cm long and tail is 25-31 cm in length. The animal weighs 1.8 to 4 kg. Its fur is long and blackish-gray, though white at the end of the tail.

It has a wide white stripe from face to chest that goes down both sides of the face to its shoulder, gives an appearance of a mustache. Its head is deep brown with white stripe. The lower side of the body is hairy and there the fur is blackish brown. The rest of it is light brown. The long fur of the tail is deep brown to silver-gray. There no hair at the end of the tail. Its feet and paws are white or blackish.

The crab-eating mongoose is, in fact, an inhabitant of the hilly forests of Chattogram and Sylhet areas. However, it also seen is in deciduous forests of Sherpur and the coastal 'goran' (ceriops decandra) forest of Teknaf. They usually live beside streams, marshland, paddy fields, mixed evergreen forests, and deciduous forests.

They are more active in the morning and evening. They are more aquatic than the country’s two other species of mongooses. This very shy animal stays alone or in a pair or in a small group. Usually it looks for food on the river banks, beneath the stones or in the cracks of rocks. They eat whatever they can hunt such as frogs, reptiles, fish and insects. When they face a danger they squirt a liquid from their anus on the enemy to protect themselves.

March to July is its breeding time. The female crab-eating mongoose usually gives birth to two offspring after about 63 days of pregnancy. They have the record of living for 10 years in captivity.

The writer is a professor at Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Agricultural University in Gazipur.

This article, originally published in the print edition of Prothom Alo in Bangla, has been rewritten in English by Hasanul Banna.