Mammals, Original Wild Facts

Wild Fact #934 – Want To Join a Gang? – Meerkat

Photo by Klum Photography at www.klum.se/main
Photo by Klum Photography at www.klum.se/main

One of our faithful readers, Anml_lvr, gave a few Wild Fact suggestions this past weekend.  On her list was a member of the mongoose family called a Meerkat. I have been meaning to do a post on the Meerkat for awhile now so I figure this would be a great time to post some interesting facts about the little meerkat!

First of all, a meerkat weighs under 2 pounds and feeds mostly on insects, however, will also eat snakes, lizards, scorpions and other smaller sized animals. The meerkat has a long thin tail that they can use as a balancing pole. As well, they resemble tiny little football players with the black patches around their eyes.  These black patches deflect the glare from the sun.  For the record, a group of meerkats would still probably play better than the Detroit Lions (although, they did manage to squeak out a win this past weekend). One other interesting physical adaptation of the meerkat is the ability to close their ears off. Not only can they use this feature to block out the incessant nagging from other clan members, but it helps keep the sand out of their ears when they are digging.  Although, these are all interesting physical adaptations, I want to talk about a social adaptation today.

You see, the meerkat lives in clans of 20 or more members.  This social lifestyle helps the little meerkat survive! As you can imagine the Kalahari Desert is not an easy place to live and every large mammal or bird is looking for a nice quick meal. Unfortunately, the meerkat can not store fat like we can, although, I seem to be storing too much so maybe this is a good thing for them! What this means is the meerkat has to forage for food every day in order to live.  As mentioned earlier, going out into the open to look for food can be a dangerous activity.  Don’t worry though, our little furry friends have developed a system to help them get food without the constant worry of a predator snatching them up.  I know you are dying to know what their strategy is so I will get on with it just for you!  Quite simply, there is always one individual on sentry duty.  That’s right, one of the meerkats will stand guard while the rest forage for food.  Usually, guard duty will last for about an hour.  While on security the meerkat will constantly be letting out little chirps informing their clan that everything is okay.  If a predator comes in looking for lunch then the meerkat will start whistling and barking to let them all know to RUN!!! Another interesting social behaviour that the meerkats have is the tutoring program.  The young meerkats will generally follow an older clan member learning how to feed from their mentor.  This type of social behaviour allows the meerkat to survive, even though, it is estimated that half the meerkat population gets eaten every year.

For more detailed information on the meerkat then I recommend you check out http://www.whozoo.org/students/kartho/meerkat3.htm

Thanks for reading and have a great day!

meerkats

17 Comments

    1. I have to agree with you on this one! I think Meerkats are one of the cuter animals that I have completed a fact for thus far. I think I may have the ability to close my ears as I have been accused of having selective hearing quite a bit.

  1. I love to watch the meerkats on TV. They are amazing creatures and so dedicated to their communities. I am not sure I would like all the rules, though.

    1. There are definitely a lot of rules to live there. I think most people would move out once they turned 16 with those rules. National Geographic or the Discovery Channel had a show called Meerkat Manor which was a series of episodes. Pretty interesting footage they managed to get from following these guys around. Their social structure definitely intrigues me!

  2. I’ve seen these little guys on TV, but never really knew where they came from or what they even were. Thanks for the post. As always, brilliantly presented!

    1. Yep, these little guys are found in a specific area of Africa (Kalahari Desert, South Africa). They are definitely a cute and interesting animal. Hopefully when I make my trip to Africa I will get a chance to see them. I am not sure when I plan to go there but after completing all of these fascinating facts, I want to take a trip to Africa very soon!

  3. Taylor and I enjoyed your blog today. Taylor has seen Meerkats at the zoo a number of times. I was also hoping I could close off my ears to avoid incessant nagging.

    1. Glad you and Tay enjoyed the post on Meerkats. I am sure Taylor fell in love with these little guys at the zoo. I am not even going near you desire to have the ability of closing your ears. I don’t want your better half getting angry at me!

      Thanks for stopping by!

  4. Thank you Anml-lvr for the great idea. I’ve watched a documentary on these little guys and it was facinating. They are so cute.

    Great Post Nathan….

    Clayton I think the male species have already learned to close their ears off (ha, ha).

    1. In response to Fisher’s comment I mentioned the Meerkat Manor documentary series. I am willing to bet that you were watching Flower and the gang! Definitely worth watching as they have some incredible footage and a very interesting subject.

      As well, I think you may be right about males already learning to close their ears off. I think it has a lot to do with evolution. It is out of necessity that the male humans have developed this trait! hahaha

  5. Thanks so much Nathan! I love these furry guys! I remember the show ‘Meerkat Manor’ and it was on AnimalPlanet. I know a trick of the Meerkats that is pretty interesting. If they want to eat an insect, they rub the insect on the rough sand to get all the poisin stuff off. Then they eat it. It is totally interesting (in my opinion)

    1. Glad you liked the post! Thank you so much for the suggestion. That is a really interesting fact about the poison insects. The meerkat is capable of ingestion some types of poison which is why they can eat scorpions. I love the interest that you have in wildlife at such a young age. I really hope you decide to go into this field when you finish school. If you ever have questions about becoming a Biologist, I would be more than happy to try and help.

      Have a great weekend!

  6. Do worthogs eat meercats? Do lions? I wonder… Would Timone and Pumba really be such good hakunamatata companions in real life?

    1. Thanks for the interesting question. Good Ol’ Lion King!

      Luckily Warthogs mainly eat plants, bulbs and other vegetation so they have little interest in consuming Meerkats. I doubt they would become best friends like Timone and Pumba but I guess you never know, right?

      Lions on the other hand would take advantage of the Meerkats hospitality. Although, lions are not main predators of the Meerkat, they are opportunistic so if given the chance, I am sure Timone would become lunch.

      If you are interested the Lion King character for Timone was based off of a real live Meerkat. The real Timone is a domesticated Meerkat that lives in a private Meerkat refuge just outside of Palm Springs, California. They do allow visitors to watch and feed some of the Meerkats. For more information check out: http://www.meerkats.com

      Thanks again for the interesting question.

  7. hi! thank you for making this post. I am doing an animal research project and this helped a lot.

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