Rare mongoose found in Rockdale Park
A group of nature lovers are on a mission to restore Rockdale Park in Westville to its former glory, and the discovery of the rare mongoose has created great excitement among everyone involved with Rockdale Park and members of other conservancy groups, spurring them on to further action.
THE recovery of a ‘special visitor’ at a small conservation area in Berea West, Westville, has made a group of volunteers extra eager to preserve their small park and trail area.
A rare White-Tailed Mongoose, with an even rarer ‘over-production’ of melanin, causing this individual to be all-black, was discovered recently.
The Rockdale Park Conservancy is working under the Westville Conservancy to raise funds for rehabilitation with the help of eThekwini Parks and Gardens to control the alien invasives which have had 20 years to take over the area.
Rockdale Park Conservancy is a four-hectare piece of land in Berea West which follows the river as it winds down over rock pools and riverine forest from the top of Cliff Road, culminating in a cascading waterfall accessible via the Rockdale Park itself.
Edged on one side by an amphitheatre of rocky cliffs, this natural haven has been hidden away, locked behind security fencing and lost in time for almost 20 years.
In 2023, resident Doreen Theys asked the Westville Conservancy if they knew anything about the park.
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“The last time I had personally used the park was when my now-30-year-old daughter was a toddler. A few messages later, and we discovered a WhatsApp group filled with neighbours whose homes border the conservancy, and soon, we had a working group of eager enthusiasts and even some initial generous donations in place,” she said.
With expert knowledge and help from Rob Jamieson from the Westville Conservancy and his team, Theys said the initial hacking through the dense overgrowth began.
“It really was a ‘Livingstone, I presume’ moment when we were able to invite our donors, interested neighbours and community members to take the first walk through the freshly cut trail in over 20 years.
“A magnificent fig tree guards the Rockdale end of the trail, creating a magical entrance from the lower trail while a walk from Cliff Road downwards takes you past a babbling brook, which gives subtle audio clues as to the vicinity of the river as it winds downwards through the reserve, with only the occasional tree trunk rising upward in a defiant effort to find the sun amidst strangling invasives.
“A year later, the tropical summer rains have all but taken back the initial efforts to combat the Montanoa Hibiscifolia, Mexican Sunflower, Castor Oil Plants, Bugweed and Yellow Bells, among others.
“Despite having extra-long summer rains that continued into May and little funding, the small team of volunteers impatiently waited for their chance, wondering what creatures could be thriving within this tiny green lung of Westville. It wasn’t long before we got an unexpected but significant answer.”
She mentioned that the neighbours’ bird counts recorded almost 100 birds spotted in the vicinity, but one keen naturalist neighbour could hardly believe her eyes when she checked her garden-trail camera.
Regular visitors in her garden included Banded Mongoose troops and Slender and Water Mongoose, but a mongoose with a bushy tail caught Birgit Eggers’ well-trained eye.
“It took some checking to correctly identify. This stranger was, in fact, a very rare melanistic form of a White-Tailed Mongoose – a rare White-Tailed Mongoose with an even rarer ‘over-production’ of melanin – causing this individual to be all-black. A White-Tailed Mongoose with no white tail.”
This discovery has created great excitement among everyone involved with Rockdale Park and members of other conservancy groups, too, who explained that it was thought to be the first time this mongoose had been recorded below the Kloof region of Durban.
The discovery has spurred on the Rockdale Park Conservancy volunteers, also as winter die-back has enabled the restart of the arduous task of eliminating the invasives while preserving the habitat of rare species.
In honour of the special resident, the White-Tailed Mongoose has now become the focus of the preservation efforts and adorns their new logo – a constant reminder that even a tiny piece of nature within the city suburbs can support and reveal something very rare and special.
To assist the conservancy, email doreen@durbanmedia.net.
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