Three Adorable Dwarf Mongooses Venture Out Of Their Den For The First Time At Austrian Zoo

This is the moment three adorable dwarf mongooses make one of their first excursions out of their den.

The southern dwarf mongooses (Helogale parvula) were born in mid-September at the Schonbrunn Zoo in Vienna, Austria.

In the footage, the nearly two-month-old mongooses can be seen playing with each other and messing around outside of their den whilst their mum keeps a close eye on them.

Stephan Hering-Hagenbeck, the zoo director, said in a statement yesterday, 20th October, that: "The young animals are curious and they explore the facility, dig in the sand and play with each other."

"If one of the little ones moves too far, the adult animals carry it back into the protective burrow in their mouths."

The souther dwarf mongoose is amongst the smallest of its species only weighing around 300 grammes.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) does not consider the mongooses to be at risk of extinction and has ranked them as a 'least concern' species.

These mongooses are native to the savannahs of eastern and southern Africa and have a fur coat that can vary in colour ranging from a very dark brown to a yellowish red.

According to Schonbrunn Zoo, they like to colonize abandoned termite mounds, which gives them protection at night and a good view of the surrounding area during the day.

They feed primarily on insects and have a complex social system as they rely heavily on teamwork to survive.

Hering-Hagenbeck said: "Pygmy mongooses live socially in small groups and rely on teamwork when they live together. Only the highest-ranking female gets the offspring, but everyone helps with the rearing."

The sex of younglings in the footage is not yet known and for the first seven weeks of their life they have been suckled but now they are slowly starting to eat more solid foods such as grasshoppers, mealworms and minced meat.

Tiergarten Schonbrunn/NF/Peter Barker