Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Within the animal kingdom, when it's time to be in charge or time to be the leader, most times this results in a massive fight. It happens between lions. It happens between hippopotamus. You have to fight to be in charge. You have to fight to be a leader. But today, get ready to hear about a creature that doesn't fight for dominance, that doesn't fight to be the leader. Something quite different happens.
[00:00:25] Welcome to planet CPR. Conserve, protect. Restore. A place to discover our planet, near and far and in our backyard. I am your host, fledge Fiamingo. And as a safari ranger from South Africa, I love to discover new things about the planet and the creatures that live around us and then share it with others. Even though we might not understand everything, like spiders, snakes, and sharks, they are still important to the health of our planet. And discovering something new leads to understanding, and understanding leads to respect, and respect leads to conserving, protecting, and restoring the planet we all share. So grab your thirst for knowledge and discover how we can make a difference today to conserve, protect, and restore what we have left. Okay, am I saying that there are creatures within the animal kingdom that will not fight for dominance, that will not fight to be a leader? Come on. This is what happens with creatures. You have to show how big you are, and you have to show how strong you are. Of course. You have to fight to be in charge, right? Oh, wow. Well, guess what? There is a creature that actually does the opposite. Can you imagine? That is so unheard of. So what I want to talk to you about today, in fact, there are a couple of different types of these species that live in southern Africa. But the one that I want to share with you is one of my favorite. It is the smallest of the carnivores in southern Africa. It is also, in my opinion, one of the cutest. Are you ready to discover some fun facts with pledge? Here we go. Fun facts to learn about the creatures that we share this world with. Shout out. I am ready. In three, two, one.
[00:02:14] So, here we go. We're going to talk about one of the cutest little creatures in southern Africa, and it is the dwarf mongoose. Can you say dwarf mongoose? And they are just really, really adorable. And so there are other types of mongoose that live in southern Africa. We have the banded mongoose, we have the white tailed mongoose, we have the water mongoose. But the one that I want to talk about today is the dwarf mongoose. And it's kind of in the name dwarf, being very small. Now, unlike the water mongoose and the white tailed mongoose and the slender mongoose that kind of live a solitary life, the bandit and the dwarf mongoose live in groups. They live in families. The dwarf mongoose could live in groups of maybe five individuals, which is really hard to survive in a small group like that. But they can go up to over 20 in a group. And living in a group just makes it so much easier to survive because they can find food together. There's lots of eyes and ears to look for predators that may be hunting them. And dwarf mongoose are the ones that actually like to lie in bed the longest. They won't come out of a burrow or a hole until the sun is way up in the sky. It's kind of like a Saturday morning, right? You don't have to get up for school. Do you enjoy getting up for school every day? Well, imagine having the opportunity to sleep in every day. Well, there you go. There's the dwarf mongoose. They won't get up and move around until the sun is way high in the sky. Isn't that just fun to know? Within the family group, a male and female are in charge. The male's role is of guardian. He looks around for predators. He's kind of the protection of the entire family. But the female's role is she decides where they're going to sleep at night. And when they finally get out of bed in the morning, she will decide which direction they're going to go and very much help with the day to day activities of foraging and looking for food. And food for the dwarf mongoose varies from all these different creatures, from centipedes, millipedes, scorpions, locusts, insects. They really enjoy hunting for those. But what I want to share with you today is how the dwarf mongoose figures out who's going to be the next female leader within the group. If the dominant female dies for some reason, then there has to be a replacement. And as we started off today, we spoke about how you have to be big and strong and you might have to fight to become the leader of the group. But here is what's so wonderful about the dwarf mongoose and how they go about selecting the next female who is going to serve the group. Are you ready to hear? Okay, this is fascinating. If the dominant female passes away, all the other females will get together and guess what? No, they won't fight. They are not going to fight for dominance. They get together and they start grooming each other. Yes, I said that they're going to start grooming each other. So the females will get together and they will start grooming each other in a group. And they will groom and they will groom and they will groom. In other words, they will look after each other, they will nuzzle each other, they will pick off all the little parasites and they will groom and they will brush and they'll groom and they'll nibble and there's no fighting involved. And then there might be three individuals left and then there might be two left because the others have just got too exhausted. And with the final two, they will groom each other. They will look after each other. They will groom each other. And sometimes it can last up to four days. Four days of nurturing and looking after each other and grooming each other. And then finally, when the last one gives up, the one who has remained because she has served the other one the longest, becomes the leader of the family. Isn't that just quite beautiful? No fighting involved, no being mean to each other, no shouting and saying, I am the best and I am the biggest and I am the strongest. These little mongoose do something quite the opposite and literally will show who can be the next leader by showing kindness and looking after the other the longest. And then she has earned the right to lead the entire family until such a time when she passes away and the grooming competition will happen again. Isn't that just amazing to know?
[00:06:31] Did you discover something new today? Because discovering something new can make a huge difference. And you, yes, you could make a small difference today. That would make a huge impact tomorrow. I hope that you have learned something great today on planet CPR. To help us all conserve, protect and restore the planet we all share until our next adventure together. This is Safari Ranger Fledge fiamingo signing off.
