NO I Will Not Look Look At You!

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In a little zoo in Volkel, North Brabant, The Netherlands you can find this cute animal. The Zebra Mongoose. The zebra mongoose is a small predator, related to the meerkat. It occurs on the African savanna and has its name through the striped drawing on the back. An adult animal is 55 to 60 centimeters long and 1.5 to 2.25 kilograms heavy. The tail is 15 to 30 centimeters long. The species is especially common in areas with many termite mounds, which serve as a residence. The zebra mongoose is found in a large part of Africa. The zebra mongoose is active during the day, but in extreme heat only in the morning and in the evening. It is a group animal that lives together in stable family groups of about 30 species. If a group contains more than 40 animals, it will usually split into two smaller groups of 15 to 20 animals. Members of a group can recognize each other by a joint group odor.

Zebramongoos use abandoned termite hills as their daily stay. The hills, which have a size of about 1 m³, are decorated by mongooses with all kinds of rooms. The territory can be quite large, up to 130 hectares. It is delineated with fragrance flags. Especially high-ranking males mark the territory regularly. Striking places in the territory, including termite hills, stones and tree stumps, are marked daily.

The food consists mainly of insects, lizards, snakes, frogs and often also mice. He digs up much of his food with the sharp claws. Sometimes he also eats plant roots and fruits. A popular snack is a bird's egg. These are stolen from the nest with the front legs and then dragged away between the hind legs. The zebra mongoose usually forages in small, separate subgroups. During the foraging, the zebra mongoose is regularly on his hind legs to explore the area. He keeps in contact with the other group members with a wide variety of sounds.