Females in banded mongoose groups give birth all at the same time in an underground den. What’s interesting is that none of the parents know which pups belong to them. What transpires is what researchers call a veil of ignorance according to new study findings, writes Mary Jo DiLonardo.
Females give care to the babies based on which ones need it most, not based on which ones are related to them. The scientists found that the babies and the females both benefitted from this societal adaptation.
Source: Treehugger, June 29, 2021. Link.
INSIGHTS: Groups of mongooses live in packs or mobs. If threatened, a pack of banded mongooses has a unique, unsettling defense mechanism. Sometimes referred to as mobbing, the entire group will mass together in a tightly packed formation and charge their opponent as one. While charging they will scream, churl and holler, but most unnervingly they will rise up, sink down and writhe side to side creating the illusion of one single huge and convulsing animal, hence the colloquialism, murder of mongoose.