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Saw Brown A Ferret Or Weasel Like Animal Today -Any Idea What It Is?
They are not quite the same as the mongoose that lives in India and which were made famous by the Kipling story of Riki Tiki Tavi ...but here as in India they are best let alone as bites would introduce infections into humans .
Not to disagree, but there is NOTHING more infectious than the human bite......
Filthy mouths, we have - apparently.
Filthy mouths, we have - apparently.
"Hey Hollywood", where did you get those pictures of my "Lovely Bride"????????
In Thailand they fight King Cobras vs. Mongoose.
The mongoose ALWAYS wins!!!
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In Thailand they fight King Cobras vs. Mongoose.
The mongoose ALWAYS wins!!!
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Anyone with chickens does not like them. As W.B. said, they will go after birds and one or two can take out a small flock in no time.
We had a few around here years ago and the locals with chickens had no problem entering other peoples unbuilt land to set traps to save their chickens. We had a small Terrier type breed that did away with three young ones that entered our property in nothing flat. Word got out that we had a "hunter" and the bidding started. No one wanted her for the three years that we had tried to place her before... talk about a homely looking little love but she would also hold court over our larger dogs so, she needed a life and off she went.
Now I have so many fricken chickens on my properties eating the horse grain and being a general pain in the butt that I want the ferrets back. (not really... but I'm getting real good with a slingshot on the chickens BUT DANG they are slow to learn.)
We had a few around here years ago and the locals with chickens had no problem entering other peoples unbuilt land to set traps to save their chickens. We had a small Terrier type breed that did away with three young ones that entered our property in nothing flat. Word got out that we had a "hunter" and the bidding started. No one wanted her for the three years that we had tried to place her before... talk about a homely looking little love but she would also hold court over our larger dogs so, she needed a life and off she went.
Now I have so many fricken chickens on my properties eating the horse grain and being a general pain in the butt that I want the ferrets back. (not really... but I'm getting real good with a slingshot on the chickens BUT DANG they are slow to learn.)
I read a book 2-3 years ago called " The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao" by Dominican author Junot Diaz. He mentions the mongoose in the book (often) and I remember them being a sort of love/hate symbol. I pictured them as looking more like a lemur minus the ringed tail or this:
But the ones he would have been talking about, and that the OP saw look more like a North American Ferret or weasel.
But the ones he would have been talking about, and that the OP saw look more like a North American Ferret or weasel.
The animal I was picturing as I read the book was a Meerkat. Same family as above pic. The Mongoose/Mongeese? found in the DR are listed as the top 100 of the "World's Worst Invaders". Often carry rabies and Leptospirosis, like most rodents, but they're not a rodent. Seems they are more closely related to a domestic cat?
issg Database: Ecology of Herpestes auropunctatus
issg Database: Ecology of Herpestes auropunctatus
It's very likely an introduced mongoose, brought in to kill rats. Could be worse if they had brought in the African Cane Toads. Dogs go after them and get killed by their toxic skin. When the rats run low, the mongoose go after chickens. It's a classic example of an invasive species. The DR only has a small handful of native mammal species(mostly bats) and the non bats are mostly endangered nocturnal invertebrate eaters, and rarely seen. Mongoose are similar to weasels in their diet but are in a different family than the Mustalids, which also includes weasels, skunks, badgers, wolverines and, of all things, otters.
Seen them a couple of times running across the road in Terramar. When we bought our house one of the features pointed out to us was the extra heavy duty mesh in the bottom of the screen doors to keep them out!
We have here on this island something that resembles a ferret or mongoose. They are brown, built low to the ground, and have a small brown tail. They look a little like a North American brown squirrel, only flatter, and instead of hopping, they scurry across the ground very quickly. In many way, they remind of my ex-girlfriend, only they don’t bite as hard.
There is a lot of folklore about this animal here on the island. There is also a lot of misinformation and half-truths spread about this animal. Like everything on this island, locals invent fantastic, creative stories our straight out of a science fiction novel. These ferrets are extremely shy creatures and will go to extreme lengths to avoid human contact.
My father and I had a very large extended family of ferrets/mongoose living directly above our bedroom for a decade. If I had to take a bar stool guess—and I have been drinking coffee all morning—I would say—and I know this will sound like an exaggeration—about 30 to 40 family members along with their extended family members and in-laws living with us. Let me explain.
My father inherited his parents shack in Bonao in 1993 when he retired in America. The shack was built sometime in the 30’s or 40’s and went through several incarnations before resembling something out of Gilligan’s Island…minus Marie-Ann and Ginger. I had a crush on Marie-Ann. I wanted her to have my babies. I also fantasized about a three-way with her and Ginger.
After my father moved into the shack, he immediately went about making modifications that resembled something from the Beverly Hillbilly TV show and the Unibomber’s--Ted Kazinki’s Montana shack. The first thing he did was install a drop down plywood ceiling. The reason for the drop down plywood ceiling was because the roof was corrugated tin and it liked cooking all day long in the sun—which had the comical effect of making our hair stand straight up and catch on fire. My hair spontaneously combusted on several occasions and we had to always have a fire extinguisher nearby. The tin roof also heated the house up to boiling point where he temperature hovered around 123 degrees Fahrenheit. I know this because I routinely measured it every day by holding a thermometer up near the roof. By 1pm in the afternoon there was no reason whatsoever to turn on the stove. You could simply place your food into a skillet and hold it underneath the corrugated tin ceiling for about 5 minutes and watch it cook instantly. It was as fast as a microwave oven, maybe faster.
My father’s Dominican logic—and he was pure Dominican hillbilly and proud of it—was that to keep the heat from reaching our poker game (we played poker every afternoon with a group of retirees) we simply needed to install a drop down plywood ceiling. This had the comical side effect of both trapping the heat above our head for 24 hours, and also inviting every mongoose/ferret within the Cibao valley—along with their extended families--to move in above us and live rent free.
Well, this is not entirely true. The ferrets decided to pay their way by eating every rat and field mouse within a two square mile radius. It was a win-win situation, but like all things Dominican, it came with problems and consequences. One of them was that the ferrets like waking up bright and early at 5:50am every morning when the sun starts rising. The other problem is that before disembarking into the fields around our house and clocking into work, they liked to play a game of tag which sometimes lasted longer than one hour before they all left the house for the afternoon.
Once the ferrets left the house, there would be complete silence and it was eerie. Very eerie. It was bizarre…one minute there would be 30 or 40 ferrets chasing each other back and forth—fighting and playing and having group sex and orgies—the next minute they all left the house and ran into the fields and would not return until the sun went down and they were full of mutton. It was the same routine everyday—rain or shine—hurricane or earthquake. They left at sunrise, and came back at sunset. You could set your watch by it. It was pure clockwork.
Now to dispel some myths about these animals. My father had around15 chickens and roosters—including Guinean fowls--a large zebra striped bird that resembles a mating between a race car and a zebra; these birds like to scream for absolutely no reason at all and wake up the whole neighborhood in a sort of celebration of making it one more day without being eaten.
Anyway, my father and I lived in his shack with 30 to 40 ferrets and never once in 10 years did we ever lose a chicken or rooster to any ferret. Not one. Zero. Nada. If the ferrets had attacked the guinea fowls and eaten them I would have built an extension onto our shack to accommodate even more family members. I hated these birds with every muscle fiber in my body.
Now, a little about Dominican myths, superstitions, misinformation, and half-truths. Dominicans are filled with so much misinformation that you could write an encyclopedia on it. They are chalk full of half-truths. Every one of them—including the supposedly educated ones. They love misinformation, and the more fantastical the better. An example I saw of this was this: a Dominican child died from either Dengue Fever or malaria ( I can’t remember), and the parents who were illiterate and poor and lived down our street next to the river, started spreading rumors that a ferret killed their child. Did it matter that the child had already been diagnosed with Dengue Fever or Malaria at the hospital that I drove them to? No. Did it matter that the child had no bite marks on her? No. Did it matter no one saw a ferret bite the child? No. Poor people—and this is not exclusive to only Dominicans—lash out at anything that can help explain a senseless death. They want answers. They will blame witches, blame voodoo, blame snakes, blame the weather…in short, they will blame anything available. Why? Because everyone wants answers to a death.
Ferrets/mongoose and snakes get such a bad rap here in this country. Does it matter that they control the rats and field mice? No. does it matter that they do not harm people? No. Rumors and superstitions and false information will continue to be spread about them. If you doubt this, simply look at all the people here who still believe in witches and will even spread rumors of witches colliding with each other over a church in Moca in 2011 with plenty of eye witness accounts of the event that it warranted being spoken about on national radio.
Frank
There is a lot of folklore about this animal here on the island. There is also a lot of misinformation and half-truths spread about this animal. Like everything on this island, locals invent fantastic, creative stories our straight out of a science fiction novel. These ferrets are extremely shy creatures and will go to extreme lengths to avoid human contact.
My father and I had a very large extended family of ferrets/mongoose living directly above our bedroom for a decade. If I had to take a bar stool guess—and I have been drinking coffee all morning—I would say—and I know this will sound like an exaggeration—about 30 to 40 family members along with their extended family members and in-laws living with us. Let me explain.
My father inherited his parents shack in Bonao in 1993 when he retired in America. The shack was built sometime in the 30’s or 40’s and went through several incarnations before resembling something out of Gilligan’s Island…minus Marie-Ann and Ginger. I had a crush on Marie-Ann. I wanted her to have my babies. I also fantasized about a three-way with her and Ginger.
After my father moved into the shack, he immediately went about making modifications that resembled something from the Beverly Hillbilly TV show and the Unibomber’s--Ted Kazinki’s Montana shack. The first thing he did was install a drop down plywood ceiling. The reason for the drop down plywood ceiling was because the roof was corrugated tin and it liked cooking all day long in the sun—which had the comical effect of making our hair stand straight up and catch on fire. My hair spontaneously combusted on several occasions and we had to always have a fire extinguisher nearby. The tin roof also heated the house up to boiling point where he temperature hovered around 123 degrees Fahrenheit. I know this because I routinely measured it every day by holding a thermometer up near the roof. By 1pm in the afternoon there was no reason whatsoever to turn on the stove. You could simply place your food into a skillet and hold it underneath the corrugated tin ceiling for about 5 minutes and watch it cook instantly. It was as fast as a microwave oven, maybe faster.
My father’s Dominican logic—and he was pure Dominican hillbilly and proud of it—was that to keep the heat from reaching our poker game (we played poker every afternoon with a group of retirees) we simply needed to install a drop down plywood ceiling. This had the comical side effect of both trapping the heat above our head for 24 hours, and also inviting every mongoose/ferret within the Cibao valley—along with their extended families--to move in above us and live rent free.
Well, this is not entirely true. The ferrets decided to pay their way by eating every rat and field mouse within a two square mile radius. It was a win-win situation, but like all things Dominican, it came with problems and consequences. One of them was that the ferrets like waking up bright and early at 5:50am every morning when the sun starts rising. The other problem is that before disembarking into the fields around our house and clocking into work, they liked to play a game of tag which sometimes lasted longer than one hour before they all left the house for the afternoon.
Once the ferrets left the house, there would be complete silence and it was eerie. Very eerie. It was bizarre…one minute there would be 30 or 40 ferrets chasing each other back and forth—fighting and playing and having group sex and orgies—the next minute they all left the house and ran into the fields and would not return until the sun went down and they were full of mutton. It was the same routine everyday—rain or shine—hurricane or earthquake. They left at sunrise, and came back at sunset. You could set your watch by it. It was pure clockwork.
Now to dispel some myths about these animals. My father had around15 chickens and roosters—including Guinean fowls--a large zebra striped bird that resembles a mating between a race car and a zebra; these birds like to scream for absolutely no reason at all and wake up the whole neighborhood in a sort of celebration of making it one more day without being eaten.
Anyway, my father and I lived in his shack with 30 to 40 ferrets and never once in 10 years did we ever lose a chicken or rooster to any ferret. Not one. Zero. Nada. If the ferrets had attacked the guinea fowls and eaten them I would have built an extension onto our shack to accommodate even more family members. I hated these birds with every muscle fiber in my body.
Now, a little about Dominican myths, superstitions, misinformation, and half-truths. Dominicans are filled with so much misinformation that you could write an encyclopedia on it. They are chalk full of half-truths. Every one of them—including the supposedly educated ones. They love misinformation, and the more fantastical the better. An example I saw of this was this: a Dominican child died from either Dengue Fever or malaria ( I can’t remember), and the parents who were illiterate and poor and lived down our street next to the river, started spreading rumors that a ferret killed their child. Did it matter that the child had already been diagnosed with Dengue Fever or Malaria at the hospital that I drove them to? No. Did it matter that the child had no bite marks on her? No. Did it matter no one saw a ferret bite the child? No. Poor people—and this is not exclusive to only Dominicans—lash out at anything that can help explain a senseless death. They want answers. They will blame witches, blame voodoo, blame snakes, blame the weather…in short, they will blame anything available. Why? Because everyone wants answers to a death.
Ferrets/mongoose and snakes get such a bad rap here in this country. Does it matter that they control the rats and field mice? No. does it matter that they do not harm people? No. Rumors and superstitions and false information will continue to be spread about them. If you doubt this, simply look at all the people here who still believe in witches and will even spread rumors of witches colliding with each other over a church in Moca in 2011 with plenty of eye witness accounts of the event that it warranted being spoken about on national radio.
Frank
It's a mongoose.
No they are not killer vicious horrible beasts but highly intelligent and social creatures.They like to play, like Otters and from a young age they can be trained as household pets, My friend's 'Angus the mongoose' was a great character until he ate the fibreglass insulation of their fridge.Terminal unfortunately.
We kept them in the maize fields in the farm in Kenya and they would keep out other pests and even chase away the pesky monkeys who stole the corn and you don't have to worry about snakes around them.
Mongoose eating chickens seems a bit far-fetched to me, depending on the species, but they do like eggs and steal from nesting boxes.
Don't try to catch a wild one with your hands , they are lightning fast and will bite if molested otherwise leave them be.They do more good than harm and will never overrun the DR as dangerous pests.
I notice that many Dominicans and North Americans prefer to kill anything rather than studying or appreciating it.
No they are not killer vicious horrible beasts but highly intelligent and social creatures.They like to play, like Otters and from a young age they can be trained as household pets, My friend's 'Angus the mongoose' was a great character until he ate the fibreglass insulation of their fridge.Terminal unfortunately.
We kept them in the maize fields in the farm in Kenya and they would keep out other pests and even chase away the pesky monkeys who stole the corn and you don't have to worry about snakes around them.
Mongoose eating chickens seems a bit far-fetched to me, depending on the species, but they do like eggs and steal from nesting boxes.
Don't try to catch a wild one with your hands , they are lightning fast and will bite if molested otherwise leave them be.They do more good than harm and will never overrun the DR as dangerous pests.
I notice that many Dominicans and North Americans prefer to kill anything rather than studying or appreciating it.
It's a mongoose.
No they are not killer vicious horrible beasts but highly intelligent and social creatures.They like to play, like Otters and from a young age they can be trained as household pets, My friend's 'Angus the mongoose' was a great character until he ate the fibreglass insulation of their fridge.Terminal unfortunately.
We kept them in the maize fields in the farm in Kenya and they would keep out other pests and even chase away the pesky monkeys who stole the corn and you don't have to worry about snakes around them.
Mongoose eating chickens seems a bit far-fetched to me, depending on the species, but they do like eggs and steal from nesting boxes.
Don't try to catch a wild one with your hands , they are lightning fast and will bite if molested otherwise leave them be.They do more good than harm and will never overrun the DR as dangerous pests.
I notice that many Dominicans and North Americans prefer to kill anything rather than studying or appreciating it.
No they are not killer vicious horrible beasts but highly intelligent and social creatures.They like to play, like Otters and from a young age they can be trained as household pets, My friend's 'Angus the mongoose' was a great character until he ate the fibreglass insulation of their fridge.Terminal unfortunately.
We kept them in the maize fields in the farm in Kenya and they would keep out other pests and even chase away the pesky monkeys who stole the corn and you don't have to worry about snakes around them.
Mongoose eating chickens seems a bit far-fetched to me, depending on the species, but they do like eggs and steal from nesting boxes.
Don't try to catch a wild one with your hands , they are lightning fast and will bite if molested otherwise leave them be.They do more good than harm and will never overrun the DR as dangerous pests.
I notice that many Dominicans and North Americans prefer to kill anything rather than studying or appreciating it.