Marloth mongooses a cause for possible eco imbalance?
Marloth Park is full of wildlife big and small, however, there is a concern about the growing population of mongooses.
An interesting argument regarding a possible ecological misbalance created by an overpopulation of mongooses in Marloth Park was recently brought up on Facebook by a seasoned wildlife photographer, Esther Caripis.
Caripis loves studying the behavioural patterns of the smaller game on her rocky stand on a ridge on the corner of Pofadder and Hartbees.
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“What is normally a fairly calm and tranquil bird feeder has turned into a crazy mongoose feeding frenzy. Eating wet birdseed is something I haven’t seen them do before. Mongoose group numbers are becoming way too large. There is definitely a huge decline in the number of insects I’ve had around my garden over the years. Hopefully something can be done to control these animals, as they have no natural enemies in the park except for maybe the occasional eagle or genet. Sad, but surely they are destroying our ecosystem in a big way. But then, that’s only my opinion…” she said.
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Air your views and observations in emails to marius@lowveldmedia.co.za or on the Facebook group, Onderbergers, where we will repeat this very interesting discussion.
