Actually a bit of history is in order here. I was born in Hawaii (Oahu,
Aiea Naval Hospital.just above Pearl Harbor) long before it became a
state and when they still grew sugar cane and pineapples there. And
yes, there were mongoose's even then. What happened is that there never
were snakes in Hawaii (although that is a real possibility now with
the Brown Vine Snake from Guam almost certainly getting in.and finally
giving the mongoose a job), but there were a lot of rats around that
came in on the shipping industries back. Someone had the bright idea
that if they brought in the mongoose, it would extirpate the rat
population. Unfortunately, the mongoose and the rat have opposing
activity schedules.the rats are mostly nocturnal and up all night when
the mongoose sleep and the mongoose is diurnal and active during the
day (hence why everyone see them running around everywhere) when the
rats are all curled up and tucked away. That's not to say that some
overlap occurs during the crepuscular hours of dawn and dusk and pity
the poor rats that are active when the mongoose are.certain death
there. However, not enough of that takes place, so now there are both
and overburden of rats AND mongooses.both bringing in their own
problems (as in mongooses love bird eggs and have contributed to the
decline of the few native birds left in the islands. I would point the
reader of this message to a book done back in the 70's titled "The Day
it Rained Cats in Borneo" for an entertaining and easy to understand
treatise on why these kinds of thing usually go awry. In any event,
there are still lots of rats and mice in Hawaii as well as many, many
mongooses (which are almost certainly impossible to get rid of as
well). As usual, this island ecology has suffered from well intentioned
intervention by man. As for the Virgin Islands, I suspect they suffered
the same reasoning, even if they did at one time have a few snakes as
well. Once those are gone, you again have the rats, mice and mongooses
all living it up in relative harmony.

Putorius and the Magnificent 7

[Posted in FML 6259]