11 March 2013

It felt good to be back in the routine of processing more than one or two mongoose - today we caught eight animals. Four of those animals were recaptures - one from two days ago and three from previous expeditions. Two recaptured males were first captured and marked on 22 July 2012 and a female had a dead microchip that I replaced. I have no idea when she was first captured, but she is at least 4-5 years of age (according to the wear on her teeth). In the image below you can see that her canines are worn down to the roots. Exposed roots would make my mouth ache and make me very cranky. However, exposed roots don't seem to impact their behavior in traps - none of them like to be in traps although many come back for a free lunch.

Female mongoose with extremely worn canine teeth

Male mongoose with a missing upper right canine

I am always impressed with the number of mongoose that I capture with teeth worn down to almost nothing and the roots exposed. It seems that they should have terrible toothaches. Even more fascinating to me is how carnivores survive with out their canine teeth. Apparently their diets on St. Croix don't require the traditional functionality of canine teeth.