The bold girl with a cool guy

It is spring now. So love is in the air. At least I could feel it just a couple of days ago while I was strolling leisurely with my camera looking for some unexpected shots to capture the milieu of the spring. I was really lucky enough to frame some wonderful moments of love between a Small Indian Mongoose (Herpestes auropanctatus) couple.

At first I saw only the male mangoose who is at the left side of the picture. You may ask how I came to know that the mangoose at the left side is male. In the following pictures it will be obvious that the left mangoose is a bit bigger than the right one and the male counterparts of this species are visibly bigger than the females of this species. The female mangoose in the picture appeared next.

I was taken aback by the manner of displaying disgust by the lady by showing all its teeth wide open and inflating its neck and shoulder. It did not like my presence at all. But the male one was wearing a complete don’t care attitude. It coolly wanted to figure out the situation; why his girlfriend is so angry!!

I did not budge and tried to make them feel easy. Then the lady came forward and perhaps realised that the cameraman was not posing any threat to them. The gentleman was very cool till then...

Then they started foreplaying. What I discovered was that lady was damn bold and had no feeling of shame at all. I rather won’t wright what they did next. See the pictures yourselves. The only thing that came to my mind was the thought that spring had come after all!!

The male could not hold back for long; started responding to the female.

The lady was very bold; I already said that. It mounted right on the back of its friend.

They suddenly discovered that the unmannerly cameraman was watching their act!!:ohmy:

In no time the lady distanced herself from her friend, brought out and showed its toung:tongue_smilie:. As if, it was very much ashamed of what it did.

Then everything was as usual. They started looking for some food for their breakfast...

The Small Indian Mongoose are very common in West Bengal. The habitat of this species is open scrub, close to agricultural land. (Indian Mammals a field guide by Vivek Menon, page 270). The images was captured in my village in West Bengal. Equipment used - Canon 7D + Canon 500mm f4 IS II USM + Monopod. Exif info is attached to the images...

You are lucky to sight these elusive species in the open displaying affection. Rare image of the female in the attacking mode. It would have been great if you could have also sighted them mating. Maybe next time :). Thanks for sharing.

Wonderful.
I wish, one day you will also record the agility of the Common Mongoose in confronting or hunting a snake (for which Nadia is well known) or bird. Thanks for sharing. SaktiWild

Thanks a lot Mrudul ji and Shakti da..wish I'll be able to capture the mating and confronting them with snake..

Samrat

Nice capture of varying moods of this small but feisty predator. I wud have liked a slightly wider compo if possible. a fight scene with a snake will of course be high voltage..

A controversial species which is supposed to have wrecked havoc on the indigenous species of certain islands where it was introduced by humans. Even here the blame is on a species for following its basic instinct to survive and multiply and less so on our own stupidity in acting as vectors. And we continue this stupidity of both inadvertent and recklessly conscious introduction of a species across habitats at speeds which are simply overwhelming for the time and scale adaptability of nature. Imagine what something like the river linking project will do....

Rgds
Roopak

Sorry for the late response. I was down with viral and now trying to complete the editing of my documentary.

Animals, unlike humans, engage in mating with the primary aim to procreate and pass on their genes to the next generation. They don’t have a sense of “shame” as we humans have developed over a period of time. Animals can continue their courtship behaviour in the presence of other species as well as infront of their own species if they are not alarmed. If they feel slightest of doubts about their safety then they move behind vegetation to create a barrier between themselves and the intruding species.

It would have been great if you would have got the actual mating as well. Also timings of each activity is important. Say 5 or 10 seconds for the female to nudge the male into engage in foreplay, actual time of mounting etc. Researchers normally note down. Since you have a camera and the clock is functional, just click one shot at the beginning of each act. That will help in serving as a record. Remember that the shutter sounds are too loud if the place is quiet and if you are too close to the species. Else they will move away.

Cheers,
Sabyasachi