Authorities captured a live mongoose at Nawiliwili Small Boat Harbor on Kauai on Friday as part of a multi-agency effort to keep the invasive species off the Garden Isle.
The Kauai Invasive Species Committee captured the critter after deploying 12 different traps baited with fresh coconuts along the harbor’s jetty wall. On Friday morning, KISC members found a juvenile, female mongoose in one of the traps.
KISC handed the mongoose over to the Hawaii Department of Agriculture and Biosecurity. It has since been euthanized, according to department officials, and a necropsy and analysis is being completed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Wildlife Services.
Kauai remains free of an established population of mongoose, which were introduced to Hawaii from India in the late 1800s to control rats in sugarcane fields,
Mongoose have gained footholds on Oahu, Maui, Molokai, and Hawaii island, and have done little to control the rat populations, but continue to pose a threat to native ground-nesting birds.
The mongoose have occasionally hitchhiked to Kauai from other islands — and have been caught at Nawiliwili Harbor in 2023 and 2021. Mongoose have also been found in the cargo area at the Lihue airport as well as at a Lihue resort, officials said.
Suspected mongoose sightings on Kauai should be reported to KISC at 808-821-1490, the state toll-free pest hotline at 808-643-PEST(7378) or to 643pest.org.
