Meerkat is generally refers to small mongoose family animal of Squirrel-sized.
- It is also know as suricate
- Their habitat is on Kalahari Desert, Namib Desert (Namibia) and South Africa and Southwest Angola.
- Meerkat name derived from Dutch “meerkat” which means “lake cat”. The name probably adapted by Dutch from Sanskrit “markaţa” meaning “monkey”,
- African People believe that Meerkat protects villages and local people from the werewolf or moon devil and that’s why they named it as “Sun Angel”
- Size:-Length of Head and body,10 to 12inch (25 to 32 cm); tail is about 8 to 9.4 in (20 to 25 cm)
Weight: less than 1 kg. - They have good binocular vision and large field of vision
- At end of each finger they have 2 cm long claw which are non retractable and they use it for hunting and digging soil
- Meerkat abdomen has very thin coat of hair and while they stand on their hind legs they can reduce their body heat from these area.
- Diet: Omnivore in nature. Insects are their favourite dish but also they love to eat lizards, eggs, snakes and so on.
- They can tolerate very venomous bite of scorpion (Kalahari desert’s scorpion is very dangerous)
- Meerkat lives in a group which is called a “mob”, “gang” or “clan”. Generally this group consists of 20 meerkats but may be as large 50 meerkats
- Meerkats live for 12-14 yrs in captive but in wild condition their life are much small (6-8 yrs)
- Meerkat is famous for their ability to stand on hind legs and guards other while searching for food or digging soil.This duty ( Duty of guarding and close surveillance the surrounding) last for 1 hrs and then shift change. Guard meerkat makes peeping sound when “all is well” but they whistle or barks loudly if they found anything wrong and the brave guard immediately goes inside the hole.
Every meerkat wants this duty as guards are given good food at first and then rest other eat. (Not joking these are the facts ) - Subspecies of meerkat: Suricata suricatta siricata, Suricata suricatta majoriae, Suricata suricatta iona
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