Life lessons

As a new day dawns, the young pups go foraging for food with the adults for the first time. The swimming pool is a perfect place to start out with young kids and some of them seem perfectly at home and take a dip in the water - usually, banded mongooses only take to the water if they need to get away from predators. At nearly three weeks old, these pups still have a lot to learn about foraging with the adults. There are a few basic rules. First they must stay as close to their family as possible, as a lone pup will have little chance of survival. Second, forging close relationships with a young adult who can act as an escort is also vitally important for a pup. The best escorts will be able to teach them the ropes and can be a great advantage. The pups will fight over the best escorts and young adult, Ginger, despite having dropped one of the youngsters down a drain, is considered a prize.