Anyone who has seen a meerkat knows how adorable and cuddly they look. However, they probably don’t know much about the social structure of a group, or “mob,”as it is known. Mobs can contain 30 or more meerkats.
Meerkats live in a matriarchal society, which means that a female is the leader. She is usually the mother of all the baby pups produced in her group. Although there are, of course, other females, the female leader does not allow them to have pups. In most cases, they will be evicted from the group, which can mean death in the wild. (They need to live in society so they can be groomed, have others to sleep with underground for warmth, and have a guard watching over them as they forage for food.)
Speaking of guards, meerkats take turn as sentries. When the group is foraging one or two guards will stand on higher ground or a tree to scan the area while the others eat. If he (or she) senses danger, they will send out an alarm call, which all of the meerkats understand. Under the direction of the matriarch, they will all run for cover until the danger passes.
Once the matriarch has her pups, she usually has a handy assortment of babysitters who will stay and watch the babies while she leads the mob out to forage for food during the day. The babysitters can be males, but most often they are females who, even though they are not pregnant or lactating, can supply milk to the pups.
The babysitters are very focused on their duties and are constantly watching for any lone meerkats who might try to come and harm the pups. They don’t think about food when they are on duty and rarely leave the area of the burrow, which would open it up to intruders.
Since they live in the desert, meerkats spend a lot of time foraging for food. For the most part, when they go out in the morning, they all stay close together. There is danger, especially for the young ones, if they stray from the group. They can easily be plucked away by a large bird or other predator. Also, little ones who lag behind can be forgotten and seldom survive, even if they are not scooped up by an enemy.
During the heat of the day when it is too hot to forage, the meerkats find shelter under trees or in old burrows that are uninhabited. This is a time of rest or play for them. When the day begins to cool and they have had enough food, it is time to go back to their current home, and once again the female leader shows them the way. They return to their burrow where they turn in for a good night’s sleep.
In the morning, before leaving the area of the burrow, they do housecleaning chores. Their long claws help them rake the sand and clean their dwelling of all types of insects and other debris. They also may spend time grooming one another.
Meerkats are territorial and do fight with other meerkat mobs. Usually, the matriarch and patriarch will lead the others into battle, and it can be bloody and end with wounds and even death.
If you have never seen meerkats, you might like to view episodes of Meerkat Manor, which aired on the Animal Planet network. It will give you a more detailed account of their social structure and how they spend their days. For animals that are only about a foot tall and a pound in weight, they are extremely intelligent and interesting to watch.
