On the islands, the Small Indian Mongoose is simply referred to as the Mongoose. Seventy-two of these little critters were brought to the islands in 1883 by sugar cane plantation owners to deal with a rat problem. Although their primary diet consists mostly of insects, they are opportunistic feeders and will eat crabs, frogs, spiders, scorpions, snakes, birds and bird eggs. In their native India, they will even take on a Cobra snake. However, the mongooses (not mongeese) are active during the daylight hours and rats work mostly the night shift. So, the mongooses went after bird eggs; devastating the bird populations on the Big Island. Only the island of Kaua’i is free of mongooses and has a flourishing bird population.
