Mess with a mongoose, get the wrath of a mongoose family. It’s not a common saying, but you’ll see why it should be after watching a recent viral video posted to Instagram by Nature is Metal. In fact, I’d go so far as to say I’d rather tick off a bull than a group of mongooses.
The video, which was originally shared by Avalon Kotze, shows a python trying to suffocate a mongoose. But that’s not what’s striking about the video, it’s the intensity with which the pack of mongooses responds to the attack in an attempt to save own of their own. The video shows over 10 mongooses biting and clawing at the snake with impressive zeal.
“This python made the mistake of trying to take out a mongoose within range of its hyper-defensive family members,” writes Nature is Metal in the video’s description. “The video isn’t the greatest—it was shot from the kitchen window of this man’s house—but you can clearly see that the python is trying to constrict one of them while the rest relentlessly attack the snake’s body.”
Most mongoose species are found in Africa. They typically live in complex tunnel systems beneath the ground in colonies of up to 50 individuals. According to Live Science, mongooses that live in packs are known to fight together when threatened by another mongoose group or, as in this case, a predator.
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Though mongooses are typically quite small, they can prove plenty fierce when they team up together. I, for one, would turn and run if I saw a pack of angry mongooses coming my way.
