Z is for...

This is my 6th year for doing the challenge. To learn more go to The A to Z Challenge Blog.

This year it's all about the 

The A to Z of 
A LIZARD'S TAIL

In which I will describe, show pictures of, and otherwise expound on plants and animals mentioned in the novel.

Z is for Zoog the Mongoose
 And no I didn't give him a name beginning with Z just to have a Z word for the Challenge!

Do not be fooled by anything you think resembles cuteness. The small Indian mongoose was brought into the Caribbean in the hopes of getting rid of the rats, not snakes which are few and harmless. However the two scavengers live in harmony as rats are nocturnal and mongooses are diurnal.
They are not rodents, but more closely related to civet cats.
 Mongooses are scavengers and, without a natural predator, have been free to decimate many native species of reptile, bird and small mammal.
They live in burrows and I have never seen one climb a tree.

Over the last 20 years or so, there's been a marked decline in their population. I'm not sure of the cause. I've heard (but have nothing to prove it) that there was a disease that radically decreased their numbers. When I was growing up, iguanas were seldom seen but mongooses were everywhere. You'd see them like one sees squirrels. But now it's the other way around. Iguanas have come back because there aren't as many mongooses eating their eggs. However, it also means there are more feral chickens because... there aren't as many mongooses eating their eggs.

The mongoose has gained some notoriety in Caribbean folklore as a sly trickster. He has even had  songs written about him. One I remember from my childhood is this one by Lord Invader. I have included the words.
"Sly mongoose, only dog know your name."

There was a competition in America
With Houdini and Destroyer
Houdini sang Adolf Hitler
And yet they said that Houdini was the winner
What he won?

Chorus:
Sly Mongoose
-all together-
Only dog know your name
-Sing the chorus-
Sly Mongoose
-everybody-
Only dog know your name
Yes, mongoose went into the White man’s kitchen
Took up one of his fattest chickens
Push it in his waistcoat pocket,
Sly Mongoose.

Then he challenge the Growler
And the Growler sand a hot number
Growler told the Houdini
He gonna win him with this melody,
What it was: “Old lady, you’re mashing my toe,”
“Oh lady, stop it isn’t”
And yet he won him with,

Chorus
Sly Mongoose
-all together-
Only dog know your name
-Sing it Macbeth-
Sly Mongoose
Only dog know your name
Yes, mongoose went into the White man’s kitchen
Took up one of his fattest chickens
Push it in his waistcoat pocket,
Sly Mongoose.

So as I’m Lord Invader, I said
“I can’t lose my name in America”,
I entered the competition,
And I sang a hot composition.
What it was: “Prisoner leve [Prisoner arise]
“Mete limier bai [Put a light]
and Yet he won me with

Chorus
Sly Mongoose
-everybody 
Only dog know your name
-Duke of Iron-
Sly Mongoose
Only dog know your name
Yes, mongoose went into the White man’s kitchen
Took up one of his fattest chickens
Push it in his waistcoat pocket,
Sly Mongoose.

Hope you've enjoyed this year's A to Z Challenge!