Abstract
Two newborn Small Asian mongooses on Okinawa had thin ash-white hair. Their eyes and ears were closed. Body weights of the male and the female at two days were 24 g and 27 g. The male opened its eyes on day 15, and the female on day 20. At two weeks, the outer hair, mottled with black and yellowish-white speckles, completely covered the juveniles. All milk teeth appeared by 28 days, and all permanent teeth had completely grown in by 126 days. The male weighed 958 g at 28 weeks, and the female 520 g. The mean daily body weight gain for each four-week period peaked at five to eight weeks. The daily body weight gain increased prior to eight weeks;however, the range of daily body weight gain and loss tended to widen after eight weeks. The daily body weight change was cyclical. The male body length continued to increase up to 28 weeks;the female continued growing up to around 24 weeks. At seven weeks, differences in the body shapes between the male and female were very much evident. The claws attained their adult form between six to eight weeks of age when sexual dimorphism begins to appear and feral mongooses are weaned. This stage is crucial for the mongoose, which morphologically and functionally undergoes a significant transformation from juvenile to adult.
