Oahu mongoose is captured after catching flight to Kauai
COURTESY KAUAI INVASIVE SPECIES COMMITTEE
Officials captured a young mongoose Tuesday morning at the air cargo bay at Lihue Airport on Kauai.
A young mongoose that stowed away to Kauai aboard an Aloha Air Cargo shipment from Oahu was captured at Lihue Airport on Tuesday.
The mongoose was first spotted by cargo employees after scurrying from a shipment of bread at Aloha Air Cargo to an adjacent Hawaiian Airlines cargo area. The Hawaii Department of Agriculture was notified at approximately 5:45 a.m.
It took Aloha Air Cargo employees and customers, Hawaiian Airlines cargo employees, a field crew of the Kauai Invasive Species Committee and Agriculture Department personnel to capture the mongoose at 8:15 a.m.
Collaboration really made the capture successful, said Rachel Smith, outreach specialist of the Kauai Invasive Species Committee. “If we didn’t have anyone report it, we wouldn’t have known about it.”
The animal was euthanized in accordance with standards established by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee.
It was the first live mongoose captured on Kauai since 2012, when one was found at Young Brothers’ port at Nawiliwili Harbor and another at Marriott’s Kauai Lagoons resort in Lihue.
The Kauai Invasive Species Committee said Kauai and Lanai are the only islands without known breeding mongoose populations, which pose a threat to native and endangered ground-nesting birds.
The weasel-like mongoose — native to India — was introduced to Hawaii island, Maui, Molokai and Oahu in 1883 by the sugar industry to control rats in sugar cane fields. But the mongoose instead preyed on turtle eggs and birds, and its population has proliferated because there are no natural predators for it in Hawaii.
Smith said the invasive species committee is partnering with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Pacific Islands Fish and Wildlife Office on a comprehensive mongoose detection program. The effort is expected to begin by the end of the year and aims to determine whether a breeding mongoose population has established itself on Kauai.
“Tracking tunnel” equipment — small plastic rectangular tubes with ink pads inside — will be placed on roads around the island to detect the critters’ paw prints.
Mongoose sightings on Kauai should be reported to the Agriculture Department’s Plant Quarantine office at 241-7135 or to the state’s toll-free pest hotline at 643-PEST(7378).
16 responses to “Oahu mongoose is captured after catching flight to Kauai”
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Not too wise ‘hamstringing’ Vector Control. By the way among the bad decisions; rats work night shift and the mongoose are on days.
I would have guessed, that it was a baggage handler, looking for souvenirs in the flight luggage, when he discovered the mongoose.
Just put him on a return flight, so he can go home.
Geeeez! They gave him the death penalty just for being a stowaway on the flight. They couldn’t just put him on the “no-fly” list?
There are a lot of mongoose on Fort Shafter!
there are families of them on the KCC campus at Diamond Head, they live mainly
on the cactus gardens.
you can see maybe 5 at a time there running around the rocks.
my relative caught one in a cage, those little buggas are vicious.
My uncle now deceased had a banana patch in Kaneohe and I remember talk of these little critters way back when.
DO you think they should be happy about being caught. ???
who said they were happy?
have you been feeling ok lately?
It’s an expression. Guess you are not bright enough to get it!
that’s not an expression, that’s just jumping to conclusions.
here, have a snickers bar…you need it
Our not very bright “experts” brought them here and now they have to be murdered because of another time humans try to mess with mother nature. Humans are the blame for all problems with animals here, like feral cats. People who don’t spayed and neuter their animals and many of them just leave them on their own or dump them when they move off Island. Who are the real animals!?
i like this post! away with all feral cats – neutered, spayed or whatever…! they just crap any and everywhere leaving a bacterial vectors in their wake. oh, but they bury their poop! NOT!!!! THE STENCH IS DOWNRIGHT PAINFUL!!!
They should have sent the guy back to Oahu. He would have made a good pet.
I highly doubt that there are no breeding mongoose on Kauai. LOL c’man. They are rampant everywhere in Hawaii.
“The animal was euthanized in accordance with standards established by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee.” ie dumped in a bucket of water, cage and all until motionless.