As you may have read in Hawaii guide books or maybe heard first hand from Hawaii tour guides about the mongoose being introduced into Hawaii to control the rat population and how it didn't work, that is not entirely true.
The Hawaii sugar plantations brought in the small Indian mongoose to control the rats, and the rodents actually proved to be a moderately effective cane field ratter.
Hawaii lore, and other places around the world repeat this story about how the rats slept during the day and were active at night, but the mongooses were active during the day and slept at night, so they never saw each other!
The truth is not a cute story, but a more pragmatic reason. The plantations found out that poisons were a much more effective killer. (Malamalama, the magazine of the University of Hawaii System, May 2007)
How interesting! I always heard the story about the two animals sleeping at different times and not seeing each other myself. Now we know the rest of the story!
Posted by: Mauigirl | June 10, 2007 at 06:39 AM
I am glad you thought it was interesting also. This was the first time I had read about this, and thought it would make a great post!
Posted by: DoubleBrush | June 12, 2007 at 04:21 AM
well this blog is great i love reading your articles.
Posted by: mbt online | August 30, 2011 at 01:42 AM