Stringing Nets to Catch Mongooses

For a behavioral study of Crossarchus obscurus, the long-nosed cusimanse, in Tiwai Island Wildlife Sanctuary, Sierra Leone, West Africa, fishing nets were the most successful method of capturing an entire group of these mongooses, compared to baited live-traps and thatch fences (which channeled animals into live traps, and which were moderately successful). At night, nets were placed on trails surrounding the sleeping sites of mongooses (tall trees), and in the morning the mongooses would run into the nets. The nets were too finely meshed for mongooses to become tangled; instead, while a mongoose tried to get through the vertical part of the net, the bottom part was folded up, sandwiching the animal. A mongoose was then transferred to a wire cage, weighed, sexed, marked, radiocollared when appropriate, and then released. Pictured is Annette L. Olson, the principal investigator for the study. The trapping was conducted with the approval of the Tiwai Island Governing Committee and the government of Sierra Leone.