Meerkats
Meerkats, also known as suricates, are small, social mammals belonging to the mongoose family. They typically measure between ten to thirteen inches in body length, with tails adding an additional seven to nine inches. Their fur is grayish-brown to light gray, with dark stripes on their backs, which helps them blend into their desert surroundings. Primarily found in the Kalahari and Namib Deserts of southern Africa, meerkats thrive in dry, open habitats.
These creatures live in large family groups, often consisting of up to thirty individuals, and they construct extensive burrow systems to provide shelter and protection. Meerkats exhibit a strong social structure, taking turns as sentries to watch for predators while others forage for food. Their diet is diverse, including insects, small mammals, and plant matter, and they are active during the day, resting in the shade during peak heat. Their breeding season runs from October to April, with mothers giving birth in burrows and young being cared for by the group. Through their cooperative behavior and vigilance against predators, meerkats exemplify the intricate dynamics of social living in harsh environments.
Subject Terms
Meerkats
Meerkat Facts
Classification:
- Kingdom: Animalia
- Subkingdom: Bilateria
- Phylum: Chordata
- Subphylum: Vertebra
- Class: Mammalia
- Subclass: Theria
- Infraclass: Eutheria
- Order: Carnivora
- Suborder: Feliformia
- Family: Herpestidae
- Genus and species:Suricata suricatta (gray meerkat)
- Subspecies:S. s. iona,S. s. marjoriae,S. s. suricatta
- Geographical location: Southwestern Angola to South Africa
- Habitat: Desert, open country, savanna, and bush
- Gestational period: Approximately eleven weeks
- Life span: About ten years in the wild, up to seventeen in captivity
- Special anatomy: Long, stiff tails that are used to stand upright; keen eyes located at the front of their heads provide good depth of vision
Meerkats, also called suricates, have the long body and short legs characteristic of most mongooses. The body length is from ten to thirteen inches, and the tail adds an additional seven to nine inches in length. The short fur of the meerkat is grayish-brown to light gray in color, featuring dark stripes across the back. The eyes and nose are dark and form a contrast with the light-colored head and throat. The belly fur of the meerkat is rather thin, which helps to regulate the animal’s body temperature. To warm up, the animal will bask in the sun while sitting up or lie belly-down on warm earth, and to relieve itself from the hot desert sun, a meerkat will lie belly-down in a cool, shaded area or inside its burrow.
Meerkats are desert creatures, primarily inhabiting the Kalahari and Namib Deserts and other dry, open areas of southern Africa. One of the most notable characteristics of meerkats is their extreme gregariousness. They typically live in family units of up to thirty individuals. The colony of animals occupies a home territory and digs several systems of burrows with multiple entrances connected by tunnels and a number of distinct chambers. The colony moves several times during a year as food becomes depleted and establishes a new system of burrows or occupies those left from a previous occupation by the group.
Group Life
Because life in the open desert is harsh and predators, such as jackals, hyenas, and birds of prey, are plentiful, the meerkat group social structure ensures that there are many individuals to act as sentries while the group is foraging for food. The sentry takes its place on a raised area such as a sandbank, bush, or tree, and constantly scans the sky and the horizon for potential predators. The keen eyes and ears of meerkats aid in their constant vigil against danger. Should a predator be spotted, the sentry barks a warning and all members rush to the protection of the burrows. When larger animals, such as hyenas, have threatened the safety of the meerkats inside the burrow, the entire meerkat colony has been seen to band together, stand on their hind legs, and confront the intruder with barking threats, successfully repelling the threatening advances of the much larger animal.
The diet of meerkats consists largely of whatever is available in the harsh desert habitat. Insects, spiders, centipedes, scorpions, lizards, snakes, small mammals, birds and their eggs, roots, tubers, and other plant matter are all staples of the meerkat diet. Each individual takes its turn at sentry duty while the others forage, and the sentry is changed about every thirty minutes. Meerkats are diurnal creatures, spending much of their time foraging for food during daylight hours, except for the hottest portion of the day when they rest in the shade.
Mating generally occurs between October and April, and females give birth to two to five young after a gestational period of about seventy-seven days. Mothers give birth in a specific chamber in the burrow and young are born blind, but their eyes open in twelve to fourteen days. Meerkat young begin eating solid food at about three or four weeks of age but typically nurse for eight to twelve weeks. In meerkat society, there are many individuals who “babysit” young while the mothers forage for food. Meerkat young are sexually mature about one year after birth.
Principal Terms
carnassial teeth: teeth designed to sheer flesh; the characteristic that unites all members of the order Carnivora
dentition: referring to the teeth
diurnal: active during the day
metazoa: organisms which are multicellular
notochord: longitudinal, flexible rod located between the gut and nerve cord
placenta: structure that connects a fetus to the mother’s womb; indicative of internal gestation of young
Bibliography
Macdonald, David, ed. The Encyclopedia of Mammals. 2nd ed. New York: Facts on File, 1995. Print.
Marsh, Laura. Meerkats. Washington, DC: National Geographic Society, 2013. Print.
McIlrath, Grant M. Meerkats. London: Reed New Holland, 2016. Print.
National Geographic Society. National Geographic Book of Mammals. Washington, DC: Author, 1998. Print.
Ricciuti, Edward, and Jenny Tesar. What on Earth Is a Meerkat? Woodbridge: Blackbirch, 1997. Print.
Weaver, Robyn. Meerkats. Mankato: Bridgestone, 1999. Print.
Whitfield, Philip, ed. The Simon and Schuster Encyclopedia of Animals. New York: Simon, 1998. Print.