WHO'S SEEN A MELLERS MONGOOSE?

The other night on our way home from a very peaceful drive along the Sand River looking at elephants drinking and male lions sleeping we came across a very unusual creature. It was dark by this time when Eckson, our tracker, spotted a Mellers mongoose! This little creature looks almost exactly like a white tailed mongoose except for the fact that it lacks the obviously white tail and is about as rare as a pangolin, if not more rare!

This is the second time I had seen this individual in the area and have been waiting to get a photograph for proof. In the excitement I got my camera out, and shouted to the guests to take photos. Unfortunately all the settings on my camera where wrong and I wasn’t fast enough to get even ONE decent photo! - Rooky error. Fortunately one of my guests was on the ball and got a couple of great shots for proof. After we went back to the lodge we downloaded the photos onto the computer and Googled 'Mellers mongoose'. We found NOT one photo on the internet of this extremely rare animal...not even in any books!! So it now falls onto the Kirkman’s Kamp rangers to get a decent photo of this creature so we can be published in a photographic field guide one day.

Well, I want to thank Craig Platt for giving me his photos to post on Wildwatch. Unfortunately we didn’t get any to sell to a book publisher - Hopefully next time.

Posted: Kirkman's Kamp by Mark Lautenbach, Date: 13 October 2011