Meerkats are known for being improbably cooperative and cute, but there is so much to learn concerning these gregarious, typically stalwartly erect mammals from the continent. They create an associated array of noises to speak with one another and work together to search out food and take care of their young.
1 - Meerkats are very smart.
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Meerkats use advanced coordinated behavior that rivals that of chimps, baboons, dolphins, and even humans. They solve tasks with help from their mob, but also with a touch of free thought. The study saw meerkats engaged in an exceedingly wide range of social and asocial behaviors to resolve tasks. Generally, the social factors helped draw the meerkats into the task, whereas the asocial processes helped them truly solve it.
2 - Meerkats will use twelve sound combos.
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Meerkats communicate with each other by manufacturing and generally admixing totally different sounds. A study showed that they can turn out up to 12 sound combos. They use these sounds for many reasons: to keep predators under control; to worry for their young; and to assemble alternative meerkats. For example, meerkats use their alarm system once they sense a predator.
3 - Meerkats don’t drink water.
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Despite living in the desert, incredibly, meerkats don't want further water in their diets. They obtain all the water they require from the grubs and insects they consume. Humans would die at intervals of three to five days without further water.
4 - They're not loners.
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Meerkats hang around in massive teams known as "mobs" or "gangs." They occasionally remain in a manageable congregation of 10 to 15 meerkats. The mob consists of many family teams, in line with the National Zoo, with sometimes one dominant combination in every family. The meerkat families do not have to be associated with belonging to a similar cluster. Females are generally the dominant members of the mob.
5 - Meerkats are immune to venom.
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Meerkats are also able to handle a bite from some types of venomous snakes. Biologists have discovered meerkats are resistant to some snakes' venom as they belong to the genus Herpestes family. In some parts of the planet, folks prize mongooses as house guards because they will battle deadly snakes like cobras. If bitten, they feel unwell for several hours but build a full recovery because they produce a glycoprotein that attaches to the protein in the venom, making them resistant to mild doses of snake venom.
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6 - They sleep in plenty.
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When it is time to hit the fodder, meerkats do not believe terribly strongly in the house. Their burrows may be up to eight feet deep and have varied sleeping chambers, but they wish to cuddle up. They'll sometimes pile on top of every alternative in their sleeping chambers in plenty, nestled on top of every alternative for heat. In summer, once it's hotter, they'll unfold a bit more and will even sleep on top of the ground. For the rest of the year, they barely notice each other in an enormous pile.
7 - Meerkats Babysit each other’s pups.
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An adolescent or young adult stays behind within the burrow to "babysit" any pups while the majority of the gang is out hunting, seeking food, or keeping watch. This is not a politician's job—whichever adult is least hungry is placed on pup-sitting duty—but the opposite meerkats do reward their sitter with food at the end of the day.
8 - They Mark Their Territory with Bacteria.
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Many animals use them to mark their territories. Dogs hike and urinate on their property. Meerkats do something similar, but a little more difficult. They create a "paste" of secretions in scent pouches below their tails that they rub on rocks and plants to mark their territory. The chemical signals found within the scent markers come back from odor-producing microorganisms that thrive within the secretions.
9 - Meerkat babies are born deaf and blind.
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Normally, feminine meerkats give birth to three to four offspring at a time, but some will have up to eight babies. Their offspring, known as pups, are born in their burrows wherever they're safe from predators. Pups weigh twenty-five to thirty-six grams, or 0.9 to 1.3 ounces. Other than being born terribly small, they're also born blind, deaf, and nearly tonsured.
10 - Meerkats are omnivores!
You might be surprised to learn that meerkats are omnivores, meaning they eat fruits and vegetables just like other animals. They need no excess body fat stores, and so hunting for food may be a constant activity. Their diet largely consists of insects that smell out mistreatment with their increased sense of smell. They jointly eat little rodents, fruit, birds, eggs, lizards, and, as we’ve seen, toxic scorpions as well as snakes.