Exploring Pigeon Valley: The Water Mongoose

This is the fifth in an ongoing series that highlights the riches of Pigeon Valley, the urban nature reserve in the heart of Glenwood. This week the focus is on The Water Mongoose.

Removing invasive alien plants from Pigeon Valley sometimes means crawling under thorny thickets. I was once struggling through such a cramped space with someone to help me when a quite large mammal came past, stopped and stared for a time, as if to say, ‘Well, I never!’, and then ambled onwards. It was only much later that I realised that this had been a Water Mongoose. Typically, these creatures hang around marshes, streams and rivers and have crabs as their favourite food. This is not the case in Pigeon Valley, but the constant supply of water in bird baths has maybe created a reasonable substitute.

ALSO READ: Exploring Pigeon Valley: The Green Twinspot

I had though only the most fleeting views until late last November, when I was watching a new bird bath by the main track. For once, the flock of Banded Mongooses that sometimes charge through the reserve, squeaking to each other, stopped to get water and to check me over. Soon after they left, a large mongoose arrived and stood still for a time, gazing at me intently. Its round, shaggy head is very different from those of other mongooses of this area.

A couple of times since then I have heard a grumbling from a thicket near the one bird bath. Indeed, there is plenty to be unhappy about, with climate change, corruption and conflicts that tear universities apart. Still, it’s good to know that it is around.

Crispin Hemson chairs the Friends of Pigeon Valley, a group that undertakes clearing of alien plants, keeps records of bird and mammal sightings and alerting management to any problems.

The Friends have a monthly walk at 7.30am on the second Saturday of each month. Email: friendsofpigeonvalley1@gmail.com.

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