Trivia question for Jan-27-2011

Here is another cute a cuddly looking animal which Olivia decided to feature for our trivia for today, so here goes:

These guys eat termites and also use the termite mounds as their home.  They particularly like eggs of all types and they have a cool way of hurling them back through their hind legs against a stone or other hard object.

In most breeding attempts, all females within the pack or den give birth on exactly the same day. Each female gives birth to 2-5 pups. Pups are kept underground for the first four weeks of life, during which time they are guarded at the den by 1-3 babysitters while the rest of the group goes off to forage.

So here’s our questions:  Can you tell us what animal this is and also tell us what one of their main predators are?

Good Luck 😉

Answer:

Wow, we got a lot of great guesses but John Hock was the first one with the correct answer.  We featured the Banded Mongoose and one of their main predators is the African Painted God.  The banded mongoose lives in open savannas, open forests and grassland, especially near water, but also in dry, thorny bushland. The species is common in areas with many termite mounds, that serve as housing and food.

Another cool fact about these guys are that adult females are forcibly evicted from the group when their numbers grow large. Females are evicted by older females and sometimes males. When these dispersing females encounter neighbouring groups they may be joined by groups of subordinate males to start a new group.

Here is more on these awesome looking critters: Banded Mongoose

Thanks for playing along 😉