Hi, there friend! My name is Banded Mongoose, also known as Mungos mungo, I don’t live alone, instead meet my active mates and together we are called a mob, group , or even a pack.  
 

I am an active little animal that can be distinguished from other animals by a coarse, brownish-grey coat, conspicuously marked with lighter-coloured bands of about the same width. The bands extend from beyond my shoulders to the base of my tail. The banding is less pronounced towards my underparts. I have black feet, ending in five toes, all with nails, the nails on my front feet are longer, as I use them for digging. See my medium-length tail is bushy at the base, tapering to a thin, darker tip. Oyi mate do not push me I want to show my size hehe. My length from nose to tail is about 75cm and I am proudly tall, my weight is about 2kg.  
 

I overheard humans saying “the banded Mongoose are some of the amazing animals” you my friend can meet us face to face and witness our behaviors here at Al Ain Zoo, we are diurnal (Daytimers) animals, we get out from our den after sunrise and returning before sunset. We prefer sheltering in old termitaria where there are several exits that we can use as bolt holes to escape danger. We are very gregarious, moving around in a group of 13 in our exhibit, and I also know my other mates live here in Al Ain Zoo’s African Wild exhibit. As a mob, we sleep together and forage in loose groups, with each of us obtaining our own food.  
 

As active as we are, we move with much rustling of the grass, as we actively search for food under dead leaves debris, and stones. When we are alarmed, we disappear in a flash, you my patient friend will see us re-appear after few minutes, nervously and warily scanning the surrounds of the source of the alarm.  
 

We are carnivores and known to be aggressive; we usually attack like a mob where our front-line fighters stand on their hind legs while snapping, biting, spitting, growling, screeching, and screaming to frighten our enemy.. Let me tell you what I eat. Insects and their grubs make up a major part of our diet, we also eat rodents and birds as well as mixed fruits… Yummy.  

We are territorial, and our major enemies are predators like birds of prey and large snakes, leopard, hyenas, jackals, and lesser felids, we are lucky as we aren’t exposed much here at Al Ain Zoo. Our life span is estimated to be about 15 years or more here at the Zoo.  
 

Oooh, one last thing, quick-quick, we enjoy the outdoors so much and we usually not far from shallow water pools and we also love Al Ain Zoo because we are not kept or treated as pets and so my friend does not keep or treat anyone like me as a pet. Goodbye for now…!