Party Animals. Try This! Explore More. These squirrel-size members of the mongoose family live in groups as large as 40, and everyone in the mob participates in gathering food, keeping a look out for predators, and taking care of the babies.
Common Name: Meerkat. Scientific Name: Suricata suricatta. Type: Mammals. Diet: Omnivore. Size: Head and body: 9. Weight: Up to 2. Explore more! Amazing animals videos Watch to discover interesting facts about animals from all over the world. Save the Earth tips Save the Earth tips. Endangered Species Act How this law protects animals. They solve tasks with help from their mob but also a bit of independent thought. The study saw meerkats engaged in a wide variety of social and asocial behaviours to solve tasks.
In general the social factors helped draw the meerkats into the task, while the asocial processes helped them actually solve it. You may be surprised to learn meerkats are omnivores — they eat fruit and vegetables as well as animals.
Unlike humans, they have no excess body fat stores and therefore foraging for food is a constant activity. Their diet mostly consists of insects, which they sniff out using their enhanced sense of smell. Despite living in the desert unbelievably meerkats do not need extra water in their diets. They get all the moisture they need from the insects and grubs they eat.
A human would die within 3 — 5 days without additional water. They can spot birds miles away on the horizon! Vision is their most developed sense. They have dark patches around their eyes to cut down glare from the sun and help them see far into the distance. Long, horizontal pupils give meerkats a wide range of vision without having to turn their head around. Meerkats are built for digging and have a membrane that can cover the eye to protect it while they are digging.
Meerats can live up to eight years in the wild but life can be harsh and they have many predators. In captivity they live between 12 — 14 years and have been known to live up to 20 years. Skip to main content. Despite what its name may suggest, a meerkat is not a member of the cat family. Meerkats are weasel-like animals that are members of the mongoose family.
The mongoose family Herpestidae includes small terrestrial carnivorous mammals. Meerkats are 9 to They weigh 1. Meerkats are a member of the mongoose family with a weasel-like appearance.
They are small mammals with grizzled gray and brown fur. They have dark patches around their eyes to protect their eyes from the sun, as well as a dark tip on their tail. Meerkats are known for their upright stance. Mothers can even feed their young while standing up. They have strong foreclaws, which help them dig. They also have a pointed snout, which enables them to excavate prey from narrow trenches. Meerkats are carnivores.
Their diet consists mostly of insects. They dig in the ground to find their prey of insects, as well as siders, snails, rodents, eggs, lizards and scorpions. They use their keen sense of smell and quick digging skills to capture their prey.
They have a home territory of about 4 square miles or more and hunt in a different section each day, returning to the first area after a week. While each meerkat must find its own food, they may work together to capture larger prey, such as a large lizard.
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