It's time for another outdoor adventure on Mammals Like Us. Rusty Mongoose didn't look anything like his parents, but that could have come from them drinking the ground water when it was poisoned by the nuclear power plant. He was almost nine months old and still hadn't caught a snake. Instead he went after slower moving creatures like turtles and baby sloths. Rusty's father didn't love him. His mother was indifferent to him but wanted him to have a good education. She decided she would have to teach him how to hunt. Here they come out of their home made of old tires, heading directly for the swamp. Rusty's the clumsy little one in the back. And what's this? It looks like Cousin Wally Weasel wants to join them. And he brought a stick in his mouth. Sorry, Wally, this is a private expedition.
It took them all morning to get down into snake country. Then Mama cleverly used Rusty as bait to draw out her sneaky prey. It didn't take long for a snake to crawl out of its hole and chase poor Rusty up a tree. But the snake wouldn't have time to gloat before Mama Mongoose was upon it. She seized it by the throat and bashed its head against a stone. Then she took its tail and fed it into its mouth until the reptile had consumed itself. The other snakes heard the cry for help and came slithering towards Rusty's mother from all sides. From his cowardly perch, Rusty could see that she was in trouble. Operating on instinct, he sprang down and took the snakes by surprise. With natural ferocity he bit off the head off their leader and mounted it on a stick. When he lowered it down to the field of vision of the attackers, they fled from the ghastly sight. So Rusty stopped chasing turtles and became a mongoose.
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