Cover: Playing on a trapeze

School children of J/D Mavil R.C.T. M. Vidyalam in the Delft island
enjoy themselves on a trapeze mounted in the school premises. Delft
boasts of three or four schools within its confines. Mavil Tamil
Vidyalam is a mixed primary school. Our cameramen Thilak Perera captured
this photograph when he was on a Delft.
Back cover: In the Wilpattu wilds
Our shutterbug Susantha Wijegunesekara was at hand to click this
picture of a wild mongoose in the wilds of Wilpattu.

Four species of mongoose are found in Sri Lanka. They are smaller
than civets, and more slender. The stripe-necked mongoose (also called
the badger mongoose) is larger than the other three species: 1.75 kg
(females) to 3 kg(males),withdistinctiveorange-yellow tones in the fur
of its rump and tail area. The three remaining species average 1-1.5 kg
in females and 2 - 2.2 kg in males, the brown mongoose being slightly
smaller and the ruddy mongoose slightly larger than the gray mongoose.
The gray mongoose tends to be a lowland species, whereas the other three
are very cosmopolitan in distribution, occupying a range
of habitat types. Except for the stripe-necked mongoose, which is
rarely seen close to human habitation, mongooses appear to thrive in
areas inhabited by humans and are frequent residents in people's back
yards. Mongooses eat mostly insects, but other arthropods, vertebrates
(including snakes), snails, eggs and, to a lesser extent, berries and
other plant matter, are consumed. The ruddy is often seen inside
putrefying carcasses, possibly feeding on insects living off the
carcass. Mongooses are largely diurnal, but the brown mongoose is
unusual in this respect and seems to be active mostly at night-Internet |