A mongoose captured by authorities in Japan. - AFP
TOKYO: Japan has wiped out all mongooses on a subtropical island, officials said, after the animals ignored the venomous snakes they were brought in to hunt and preyed on endangered local rabbits instead.
About 30 of the venom-resistant predators were released on Amami Oshima, a Unesco World Heritage site, in the late 1970s to keep down the population of habu, a pit viper whose bite can be deadly to humans.
