meerkat

You might have a friend who likes to get involved with a particular group, very vigilant around, very attentive to each group member, quirky alone and won’t hesitate to face the threats? He or she is very similar to meerkat. What if you call him Mr. Meerkat from now on?

Meerkat is an interesting animal to approach. Meerkat is not afraid of human presence. Meerkat is also a social creature that is often seen gathering with other meerkat mobs. Even though they are happy together with the groups, meerkat can also be alone at any time.

Physical Appearance

This cute animal is a mammal that has scientific name Suricata suricatta. Its tall only about 12 inches with the weight about two pounds. When a meerkat is born, he has no hair at all. As meerkat grew up, fine browny grey hair began to appear. Meerkat has very prominent eyes with black shadow around the eyeball. When babies, meerkats cannot see or blind and their ears are closed tight.

The way how adult meerkat stands is very unique and attention-grabbing. Meerkat uses its tail to balance the body when standing. While standing tall with the tail, meerkats will lurk in all directions. If you visit meerkats in Bali Safari and Park, you are going to witness how meerkats are standing with the tails while absorbing sunlight in the morning. You might then be curious about what they think about such time. Could meerkat think where to go for food and which mobs? Who knows?

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Get To Know More About ‘The Alert Animal’ Meerkat 1

Meerkat Social Life

This mongoose family member is famous for their daily life who likes to huddle. One group of meerkat can consist of 2 to 3 meerkat families. So, you can imagine if one meerkat family consists of 5 individuals, then one group of meerkat can reach the total 15 up to 20 individuals. In wildlife, there are even meerkat mobs that collectively search for food together with all 50 individuals.

Meerkats not only gather and eat together, they also build strong bonds with each other. When you go to dry areas in South Africa, you may see mobs of meerkats roam. They foster relationships like humans where they play together, care for each other, and share tasks instinctively.

Meerkat hunts for food like insects, snakes, roots, small lizards, scorpions, and tubers. While hunting, there are a number of meerkats who are busy hunting for prey by lurking and approaching their target. While others remain vigilant spying on predators who might come at any time. Meerkats have their own ways to alert their mobs. If there might be a small dager that threatens them, they will whisper and whistle. If the danger increases, a meerkat mobs will scream loudly to attract more mobs to help them.

In order to face the danger they might find in the future, meerkat groups will practice and take care of each other, so that their groups become strong. Meerkats are luckily given excellent sense of sight, smell, and hearing. Even more amazing they are immune to the scorpion and snake venom.

Get To Know More About ‘The Alert Animal’ Meerkat 2

Breeding

The mate time for meerkat couples is during the rainy season. The female meerkat will give birth to 2 up to 5 meerkat babies in one birth. The babies will live in burrows with their mothers for several weeks before they finally can eat solid food like what adult meerkats eat. While breastfeeding the baby, female meerkat can also stand on her tail.

Young meerkats are easily afraid of their predators. Even for unfamiliar voices that sounded closer to them can make them run faster towards their burrows to hide. Adult meerkat is caring for young meerkats. They are taught a number of skills such as how to distinguish good food and bad food.

Meerkats can live until 13 years old in captivity. But in the wild, their lifespan is even lower.

If you wanna see these long live in conservation center, do come to Bali Safari Park. Don’t forget to visit our website first safaribaliticket.com before your coming.

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