This was a real treat, and something I had been looking for a long time. I was with expert guide and birder Mathew Kwan on a tour of Long Valley when he said, "oh, look, a mongoose"....
I did not see it at the time, but on looking at my first photos you can see the bird trying to chase off this fierce little predator.
Not my greatest of photos, but to be fair he was a long way off...even for 500mm at f7. and a correspondingly high ISO.
Hong Kong has two closely related mongooses, this one is the commoner of two species here, the small Indian mongoose or Javan Mongoose. The other is the slightly larger Crab eating mongoose, which I hope to find in the future.
The Small Asian Mongoose (Herpestes javanicus) is a small carnivore that looks somewhat like an elongated very short fox with small ears - or as someone said, a mean looking squirrel. Since it is active in the daytime, it is among the more easily spotted local mammals.
We rushed across the bridge after taking these pictures, hoping to track it along the pathway, but alas it disappeared into thin air, as is so often the case with wonderful wild creatures.
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