342: Mongoose

Ellen and Christian return from their travels to review the good, the bad, and the ugly of the mongooses. We discuss the Shedd Aquarium and the Field Museum, historical plurals, neurotoxin Darth Vader, checking in with Pliny the Elder, the most "mean girls" scientific study ever, mysteriously weird pupils, the global issue of mongoose-induced ecological destruction, and so much more. 

Works Cited:

• "Mongoose" - Etymonline
• “How the mongoose can fight the snake: The binding site of the mongoose acetylcholine receptor” - Dora Barchan et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, August 1992
• “Why the honey badger don't care: Convergent evolution of venom-targeted nicotinic acetylcholine receptors in mammals that survive venomous snake bites” - Danielle Drabeck et al., Toxicon, March 2015
• Book 8, chapter 36 of Natural History - Pliny the Elder, 77 CE
• “Experimental evidence for delayed postconflict management behaviour in wild dwarf mongooses” - Amy Morris-Drake et al, eLife, September 2021
• Hawaii Invasive Species Council - Mongoose (Urva auropunctata)
• “Negative Impact of an Invasive Small Indian Mongoose Herpestes javanicus on Native Wildlife Species and Evaluation of a Control Project in Amami-Ohshima and Okinawa Islands, Japan” - Fumio Yamada & Ken Sugimura, Global Environmental Research, December 2004
• Hazardous Substances and New Organisms Act 1996, Schedule 2 - New Zealand government

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