Page 106 - Present Day Wildlife_Float

The Meerkat (Suricata suricatta), also known as suricate, is a small carnivorous burrower and
is the sole species in the genus Suricata, a member of the mongoose family, Herpestidae. They are
found across southern Africa in the Kalahari Desert in Botswana, Namib Desert in Namibia and
south-western Angola and in South Africa. They are around 24 to 35 cm in length and weigh around
0.62 to 0.97kg. The Meerkat is believed to have first appeared in South Africa around 1 to 2 million
years ago.

The Meerkat is a small thin built mammal,
with a thin tapering tail, a broad head, large
round eyes and long legs with paws brandishing
four long digging claws. Its soft fur coat is light
grey to yellowish brown with light and dark bro-
ken band lines on its back. Although a member
of the mongoose family, they are much smaller
than the average mongoose, but larger than the
dwarf mongoose.

Meerkats are found in hot arid deserts and
open and parched grasslands in Southern Africa.
They are consummate burrowers, and a pack of
several individuals will often dig a network of
tunnels around 5 metres long, with multiple en-
trances and several levels one above the other.
They are highly sociable pack animals, living in
packs of only a few to around thirty. The pack
will have its own territory, which the dominant
ones in the pack will mark out with scent from
their anal glands. The pack will also dig large
communal latrines around the territory and
small underground bolt holes they use in emergencies. Although they often
share their burrows with Cape ground squirrels, yellow mongooses and pyg-
my mice, meetings with conspecific members of other packs, always result in
violence. Meerkats will kill or fight to the death to protect their pack against
any would be interloper. When not hunting, Meerkats will spend the day so-
cializing, basking in the sun or sheltering from the heat in their burrows. No
matter what they are doing they are always on the alert, with one or two of the
Back Markings pack always standing erect watching for any danger. If danger is spotted the
watcher will give several high-pitched barks, and the pack will quickly disap-
pear down their bolt holes or burrow whichever is closest. Meerkats have a
wide range of sounds they use to communicate with one another; with each
sound – believed to be around 12 – invoking a different response in those

hearing them.

The Meerkat is primarily an insectivore, feeding on beetles and all man-
ner of insects. However, in the arid environment it resides, water is scarce and
it’s rarely, if ever, seen drinking water, but getting what it needs from its insec-
Long Claws tivorous diet is unlikely, so it has supplemented its main diet by eating citron
melons, roots, tubers, eggs, amphibians, reptiles, small birds and even scorpi-
ons, to whose venom they are immune. They are poor runners and climbers
so when hunting they hunt in packs, descending on their prey from all direc-
tions, essentially trapping their victim in the centre. Meerkats are not apex
predators and are preyed on by many more skilful predators such as bat-
eared and Cape foxes, black-backed jackals, tawny eagles and hawks. With so
many skilful predators hunting them, it’s not surprising the nervous Meer-
kats are constantly photographed and portrayed, often as a type of comic re-
lief, standing stiffly erect. Comic as it may seem to some, all the Meerkat is
trying to do is, be watchful, and stay alive. (See: Mongoose)
Basking