Immigration Lessons From The Wild Dwarf Mongoose

Dwarf Mongoose, photo Hans Hillewaert

“In wild dwarf mongoose communities, immigrants are always welcome,” PBS News Hour reports. Even when those new members arrive “exhausted” and having lost weight from the “energetically costly” decision to switch communities.

Still, the new community will ignore any immigrants who serve on guard duty for the first few months, even if they accurately warn the group of looming danger.

But after that “integration period,” the immigrant mongoose does become a trusted member of the community. Indeed, “the dwarf mongoose is one of few species to evolve a sense of camaraderie and trust building to outsiders.” That is, as one behavioral ecologist put it, “They seem to have outgrown xenophobia.”

Aw. If only us humans could follow suit.

By the by, if you’re someone who likes primary sourced science – here’s the underlying study.

-KitJ