Meerkat
Conservation status
Least Concern
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata Class: Mammalia Order: Carnivora Family: Herpestidae Genus: Suricata Desmarest, 1804 Species: S. suricatta
Binomial name
Suricata suricatta (Schreber, 1776)
Meerkat range

The meerkat or suricate Suricata suricatta is a small mammal and a member of the mongoose family. It inhabits all parts of the Kalahari Desert in Botswana and South Africa. A group of meerkats is called a "mob", "gang", or "clan". A meerkat clan often contains around 20 meerkats at a time, but some superfamilies have had 50 or more. Meerkats have an average life span of 12-14 years. Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (933x1400, 942 KB) en: Description: Meerkat (Suricata suricatta) de: Beschreibung: Erdmännchen (Suricata suricatta) Source: picture taken by Olaf Leillinger on 2005-08-13 License: CC-BY-SA-2. ... The conservation status of a species is an indicator of the likelihood of that species remaining extant either in the present day or the near future. ... Image File history File links Status_iucn2. ... Least Concern (LC) is an IUCN category assigned to extant species or lower taxa which have been evaluated but do not qualify for any other category. ... Scientific classification redirects here. ... Phyla Subkingdom Parazoa Porifera (sponges) Subkingdom Agnotozoa Placozoa Orthonectida Rhombozoa Subkingdom Metazoa Radiata Cnidaria Ctenophora - Comb jellies Bilateria Protostomia Acoelomorpha Platyhelminthes - Flatworms Nemertina - Ribbon worms Gastrotricha Gnathostomulida - Jawed worms Micrognathozoa Rotifera - Rotifers Acanthocephala Priapulida Kinorhyncha Loricifera Entoprocta Nematoda - Roundworms Nematomorpha - Horsehair worms Cycliophora Mollusca - Mollusks Sipuncula - Peanut worms Annelida - Segmented... Typical Classes See below Chordates (phylum Chordata) are a group of animals that includes the vertebrates, together with several closely related invertebrates. ... Orders Subclass Monotremata Monotremata Subclass Marsupialia Didelphimorphia Paucituberculata Microbiotheria Dasyuromorphia Peramelemorphia Notoryctemorphia Diprotodontia Subclass Placentalia Xenarthra Dermoptera Desmostylia Scandentia Primates Rodentia Lagomorpha Insectivora Chiroptera Pholidota Carnivora Perissodactyla Artiodactyla Cetacea Afrosoricida Macroscelidea Tubulidentata Hyracoidea Proboscidea Sirenia The mammals are the class of vertebrate animals primarily characterized by the presence of mammary... Families 17, See classification The diverse order Carnivora (IPA: or ; from Latin carō (stem carn-) flesh, + vorāre to devour) includes over 260 species of placental mammals. ... Genera 17 genera, see text The mongoose is any member of the Herpestidae family of small, cat-like carnivores. ... Anselme Gaëtan Desmarest (1784 - June 4, 1838) was a French zoologist and author. ... Latin name redirects here. ... Johann Christian Daniel von Schreber (1739 - 1810) was a German naturalist. ... For other uses, see 1776 (disambiguation). ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Subclasses & Infraclasses Subclass †Allotheria* Subclass Prototheria Subclass Theria Infraclass †Trituberculata Infraclass Metatheria Infraclass Eutheria For the folk-rock band see The Mammals. ... For other uses, see Mongoose (disambiguation). ... Kalahari redirects here. ...

Name

"Meerkat" is a loan word from Afrikaans. The name came from Dutch but by misidentification. Dutch meerkat and German Meerkatze refer to the "guenon", a monkey of the Cercopithecus genus. The word "meerkat" is Dutch for "lake cat", but the suricata is not in the cat family, and neither suricatas nor guenons are attracted to lakes; the word possibly started as a Dutch adaptation of a derivative of Sanskrit markaţa मर्कट = "monkey", perhaps in Africa via an Indian sailor onboard a Dutch East India Company ship. The traders of the Dutch East India Company were likely familiar with monkeys, but the Dutch settlers attached the name to the wrong animal at the Cape. The suricata is called stokstaartje = "little stick-tail" in Dutch and Erdmännchen = "little earth-man" in German. The scientific name suricate comes from the Swahili language and it means "rock-cat". A loanword (or a borrowing) is a word taken in by one language from another. ... Look up Appendix:Afrikaans and Dutch Swadesh lists in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Type species Simia diana Linnaeus, 1758 Species see text The guenons are the genus Cercopithecus of Old World monkeys. ... Subfamilies Cercopithecinae - 11 genera Colobinae - 9 genera The Old World monkeys or Cercopithecidae are a group of primates, falling in the superfamily Cercopithecoidea in the clade Catarrhini. ... “Feline” redirects here. ... Sanskrit ( , for short ) is a classical language of India, a liturgical language of Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism, and Jainism, and one of the 23 official languages of India. ... Approximate worldwide distribution of monkeys. ... This article is about the trading company. ... This article is about the language. ...

According to African popular belief (mainly in the Zambian/Zimbabwean region), the meerkat is also known as the sun angel, as it protects villages from the moon devil or the werewolf which is believed to attack stray cattle or lone tribesmen. For other uses, see Werewolf (disambiguation). ...

Anatomy

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The meerkat is a small diurnal herpestid (mongoose) weighing on average about 731 grams (1.61 pounds) for males and 720 grams (1.58 pounds) for females. Its long slender body and limbs give it a body length of 25 to 35 cm (10 to 14 inches) and an added tail length of 17 to 25 cm (7 to 10 inches). Its tail is not bushy like all other mongoose species, but is rather long and thin and tapers to a black or reddish colored pointed tip. The meerkat uses its tail to balance when standing upright. Its face tapers, coming to a point at the nose, which is brown. The eyes always have black patches around them, which help deflect the sun's glare. The meerkat has small black crescent-shaped ears that can close when digging to keep sand out. Like cats, meerkats have binocular vision, a large peripheral range, depth perception, and eyes on the front of their faces. Image File history File links Example. ... The UTF-8-encoded Japanese Wikipedia article for mojibake, as displayed in ISO-8859-1 encoding. ... A diurnal animal (dī-ŭrnəl) is an animal that is active during the daytime and sleeps during the night. ... For other uses, see Mongoose (disambiguation). ... BIC pen cap, about 1 gram. ... This article is being considered for deletion in accordance with Wikipedias deletion policy. ... An inch (plural: inches; symbol or abbreviation: in or, sometimes, ″ - a double prime) is the name of a unit of length in a number of different systems, including English units, Imperial units, and United States customary units. ... Binocular vision is vision in which both eyes are used synchronously to produce a single image. ...

At the end of each of a meerkat's "fingers" is a non-retractable, strong, 2 cm (0.8 inches) long, curved claw used for digging underground burrows and digging for prey. Claws are also used with muscular hindlegs to help climb the occasional tree. They have four toes on each foot and long slender limbs. The coat is usually fawn-colored peppered with gray, tan, or brown with a silver tint. They have short parallel stripes across their backs, extending from the base of the tail to the shoulders. The patterns of stripes are unique to each meerkat. The underside of the meerkat has no markings but the belly has a patch which is only sparsely covered with hair and shows the black skin underneath. The meerkat uses this area to absorb heat while standing on its rear legs, usually early in the morning after cold desert nights. Cat claw A claw is a curved pointed appendage, found at the end of a toe or finger or, in arthropods, of the tarsus. ... A burrow is a hole or tunnel dug into the ground by an animal to create a space suitable for habitation, temporary refuge, or as a byproduct of locomotion. ... Predator and Prey redirect here. ...

Diet and foraging behaviour

Meerkats showing foraging behavior at the Adelaide Zoo.

Meerkats are primarily insectivores, but also eat lizards, snakes, scorpions, spiders, plants, eggs, small mammals, millipedes, centipedes and, more rarely, small birds. They are partially immune to certain venoms; they are immune to the very strong venom of the scorpions of the Kalahari, unlike humans.^[1] They have no excess body fat stores, so foraging for food is a daily need. Adelaide Zoo is Australias second oldest zoo, located in Adelaide, South Australia and the only major metropolitan zoo in Australia to be owned and operated on a non-profit basis. ... Any organism with a diet that consists chiefly of insects and similar small creatures is an insectivore. ... For other uses, see Lizard (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see Snake (disambiguation). ... Superfamilies Pseudochactoidea Buthoidea Chaeriloidea Chactoidea Iuroidea Scorpionoidea See classification for families. ... For other uses, see Spider (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see Plant (disambiguation). ... In most birds and reptiles, an egg (Latin ovum) is the zygote, resulting from fertilization of the ovum. ... Subclasses & Infraclasses Subclass †Allotheria* Subclass Prototheria Subclass Theria Infraclass †Trituberculata Infraclass Metatheria Infraclass Eutheria For the folk-rock band see The Mammals. ... For other uses, see Millipede (disambiguation). ... For the arcade game called Centipede see Centipede (video game). ... A request has been made on Wikipedia for this article to be deleted in accordance with the deletion policy. ... The Kalahari Desert is a large, arid to semi-arid sandy area in southern Africa that covers about 500,000 km². It covers 70% of Botswana, and parts of Zimbabwe, Namibia and South Africa. ... Adipose tissue is one of the main types of connective tissue. ...

Meerkats forage in a group with one "sentry" on guard watching for predators while the others search for food. Sentry duty is usually approximately an hour long. Baby meerkats do not start foraging for food until they are about 1 month old, and do so by following an older member of the group who acts as the pup's tutor.^{[citation needed]} The meerkat standing guard makes peeping sounds when all is well. If the meerkat spots danger, it barks loudly or whistles.

Reproduction

A meerkat in the Kalahari Desert

Meerkats become sexually mature at about one year of age and can have 1 to 5 pups in a litter, with 3 pups being the most common litter size. Wild meerkats may have up to four litters per year. Meerkats are iteroparous and can reproduce any time of the year but most births occur in the warmer seasons. The female meerkat can have more than one litter a year. The pups are allowed to leave the burrow at three weeks old. When the pups are ready to emerge from the burrow, the whole clan of meerkats will stand around the burrow to watch. Some of the adolescents might try to show off so they can have more attention than the pups. Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... Kalahari redirects here. ... Iteroparous Iteroparous organisms produce offspring in successive, eg. ... A litter of pigs A litter is a group of newly born, young animals from the same mother and usually from one set of parents. ... A burrow is a hole or tunnel dug into the ground by an animal to create a space suitable for habitation, temporary refuge, or as a byproduct of locomotion. ...

Reports show that there is no precopulatory display; the male ritually grooms the female until she submits to him and copulation begins, the male generally adopting a seated position during the act. Gestation lasts approximately 11 weeks and the young are born within the underground burrow and are altricial. The young's ears open at about 15 days of age, and their eyes at 10-14 days. They are weaned around 49 to 63 days. They do not come above ground until at least 21 days of age and stay with babysitters near the burrow. After another week or so, they join the adults on a foraging party. A pair of lions copulating in the Maasai Mara, Kenya. ... Gestation is the carrying of an embryo or fetus inside a female viviparous animal. ... In bird and mammal biology, altricial species are those whose newly hatched or born young are relatively immobile, have closed eyes, lack hair or down, and must be cared for by the adults. ... A breastfeeding infant Breastfeeding is the practice of a woman feeding an infant (or sometimes a toddler or a young child) with milk produced from her mammary glands, usually directly from the nipples. ...

Usually, the alpha pair reserves the right to mate and normally kills any young not its own, to ensure that its offspring has the best chance of survival. The dominant couple may also evict, or kick out the mothers of the offending offspring. An alpha pair is a male and a female who together are leaders of a flock or herd or pack of animals. ...

New meerkat groups are often formed by evicted females pairing with roving males.

If the members of the alpha group are relatives (this tends to happen when the alpha female dies and is succeeded by a daughter), they do not mate with each other and reproduction is by group females stray-mating with roving males from other groups; in this situation, pregnant females tend to kill and eat any pups born to other females.

Behavior

Meerkats are small burrowing animals, living in large underground networks with multiple entrances which they leave only during the day. They are very social, living in colonies averaging 20-30 members. Animals in the same group regularly groom each other to strengthen social bonds. The alpha pair often scent-mark subordinates of the group to express their authority, and this is usually followed by the subordinates grooming the alphas and licking their faces. This behavior is also usually practiced when group members are reunited after a short period apart. Most meerkats in a group are all siblings or offspring of the alpha pair.

Meerkats demonstrate altruistic behavior within their colonies; one or more meerkats stand sentry (lookout) while others are foraging or playing, to warn them of approaching dangers. When a predator is spotted, the meerkat performing as sentry gives a warning bark, and other members of the gang will run and hide in one of the many bolt holes they have spread across their territory. The sentry meerkat is the first to reappear from the burrow and search for predators, constantly barking to keep the others underground. If there is no threat, the sentry meerkat stops signalling and the others feel safe to emerge. For the ethical doctrine, see Altruism (ethics). ...

Meerkats also babysit the young in the group. Females that have never produced offspring of their own often lactate to feed the alpha pair's young, while the alpha female is away with the rest of the group. They also protect the young from threats, often endangering their own lives. On warning of danger, the babysitter takes the young underground to safety and is prepared to defend them if the danger follows. If retreating underground is not possible, she collects all young together and lies on top of them. Kittens nursing Lactation describes the secretion of milk from the mammary glands, the process of providing that milk to the young, and the period of time that a mother lactates to feed her young. ...

Meerkats are also known to share their burrow with the yellow mongoose and ground squirrel, species with which they do not compete for resources. If they are unlucky, sometimes they share their burrow with snakes. Binomial name Cynictis penicillata Cuvier, 1829 The Yellow mongoose is a small mammal averaging about 1 lb (1/2 kg) in weight and about 20 in (500 mm) in length. ... Genera Ammospermophilus Spermophilus Cynomys Marmota Tamias Sciurotamias The ground squirrels are all members of the Sciuridae most closely related to the genus Marmota and included in the tribe Marmotini. ... Families Acrochordidae Aniliidae Anomalepididae Anomochilidae Atractaspididae Boidae Bolyeriidae Colubridae Cylindrophiidae Elapidae Hydrophiidae Leptotyphlopidae Loxocemidae Pythonidae Tropidophiidae Typhlopidae Uropeltidae Viperidae Xenopeltidae Snakes are cold blooded legless reptiles closely related to lizards, which share the order Squamata. ...

Meerkats actively teach their young. Young of most species learn solely by observing adults. For example, meerkat adults teach their pups how to eat a venomous scorpion: they will remove the stinger and help the pup learn how to handle the creature.^[2]

Despite this altruistic behaviour, meerkats sometimes kill young members of their group. Subordinate meerkats have been seen killing the offspring of more senior members in order to improve their own offspring's position.^[3]

Meerkats have been known to engage in social activities, including what appear to be wrestling matches and foot races.

Vocalization

It has recently been noted that meerkat calls may carry specific meanings, with specific calls indicating the approach of snakes, birds of prey, or other predators. How these calls work is not yet clear.

Meerkat groups

A meerkat group may die out because of predator attack, its alpha pair being unable to breed, starvation in a year when the rains fail, or epidemic disease.

A new meerkat group often arises from evicted females meeting and staying with roving males, looking for chances to mate. The litter size is usually 2-5 pups.

The size of the groups is variable. A group which becomes over-large may routinely have to disperse widely to find enough food when foraging. As a result, when suddenly needing to run for shelter, members of the group may choose different holes, resulting in the group fissioning.

See also

• Kalahari Meerkat Project, a long-term research project
• Meerkat Manor, a very popular television show

The Kalahari Meerkat Project, or KMP, is a long term research project on meerkats, to study cooperative behavior among meerkats. ... Meerkat Manor is a British television show made by Oxford Scientific Films for Animal Planet International. ...

References

• Mustelid Specialist Group (1996). Suricata suricatta. 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN 2006. Retrieved on 12 May 2006.
• David Macdonald (Photography by Nigel Dennis): Meerkats. London: New Holland Publishers, 1999.
• Meerkat pups go to eating school BBC News, 13 July 2006. Meerkat pups do not learn how to eat dangerous animals such as scorpions on their own but are taught by adults, scientists have discovered.

A digital object identifier (or DOI) is a standard for persistently identifying a piece of intellectual property on a digital network and associating it with related data, the metadata, in a structured extensible way. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. ... is the 23rd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species (also known as the IUCN Red List and Red Data List), created in 1963, is the worlds most comprehensive inventory of the global conservation status of plant and animal species and can be found here. ... The World Conservation Union or International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) is an international organization dedicated to natural resource conservation. ... is the 132nd day of the year (133rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... This article refers to the news department of the British Broadcasting Corporation, for the BBC News Channel see BBC News (TV channel). ... is the 194th day of the year (195th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Suricata suricatta

Wikispecies has information related to:

Suricata suricatta

• Animal Diversity - Meerkat
• Fellow Earthlings Meerkat Sanctuary
• The Kalahari Meerkat Project
• The Meerkat Magic Project