Suricate or Meerkat Suricata suricatta

Suricate or Meerkat
Suricata suricatta

WHAT IT IS

An odd-looking social mongoose of the South West Arid Zone. Thinner and longer-legged than other social mongooses. male wt 1.6 lb (0.73 kg), hbl ll.2 in (28 cm); female slightly smaller, Tail: 4/5 of body length, thin, pointed. Feet: 4 toes, long claws. Head: domed forehead, sharp snout, low, rounded ears. Coat: coarse, underside sparse, grizzled. Color: gray or tan with indistinct darker banding on back; buff or yellowish underside; dark eye patches, ears, and tail tip

WHERE IT LIVES

Southwestern Africa: Angola, Namibia, Botswana, South Africa, in Kalahari, highveld, and Karroo, and adjacent dry savanna.

GOOD PLACES TO SEE IT

Kalahari Gemsbok NP (study site); most parks and reserves within its range with suitable habitat.

ECOLOGY

Inhabits driest, openest country of all mongooses. Particularly associated with hard ground, such as alkaline pans and stony river banks, less often with sandy soils, where it often shares dens peacefully with yellow mongooses and ground squirrels. Specializes in buried invertebrates: beetle larvae, crickets, scorpions, spiders, butterfly pupae and larvae, moths, and flies; also eats harvester termites, and small vertebrates: snakes, lizards, birds, and mice. Gains water in sandveld by eating tsama melons, roots, and tubars.

ACTIVITY

Suricates leave den after sunrise, visit communal latrine, then sunbathe, groom, and socialize before foraging. After midday rest, pack forages again untie late afternoon, ending up relaxing and interacting outside a burrow until dusk. They get up later on cold or rainy days, sun more in winter than summer.

SOCIAL/MATING SYSTEM

Very similar to banded mongoose, but whether suricates are also territorial remains uncertain. Predation and hostile relations between grottos favor big packet 10 to 15, up to 30 members. The mean composition of 8 packs numbering 9 to 17 members was 5.4 adult males, 4 females, 0.75 juveniles, and 1 .1 subadults. A pack of 12 siricates had a home range of 6 miles square (15.5 km2). Ranges include 5 burrows spaced 50 to 100 yd apart and used in rotation for months or years. These dens, slightly elevated due to excavated dirt and averaging 5 (up to 30) yd across. are a labyrinth of tunnels with c. 15 (up to 90) entrances. Suricates extend and repair the tunnels after rains soften the earth but usually occupy existing burrows, mostly prepared by ground squirrels.
Intrapack relations are notably peaceful and cooperative, with no indication of a dominance hierarchy, although males usually play the watchdog role and are most warlike when two packs meet. Despite intergroup enmity, apparently males routinely emigrate and try to join another unit. Sometimes females also transfer and participate in caring for the foster pack's offspring.

HOW IT MOVES

Walking (on toes) and jump-running are the two usual gaits, but top speed is slower than a person can sprint. Poor climbers but superb diggers. Sunbathing postures-used to maximize exposure, especially of the thin-haired underside, include standing and seated while sun is low, sprawling on back or twisted to one side when sun is high. Sleep at night in seated groups, folded front to back, sharing body heat.

FORAGING/PREDATORY BEHAVIOR

Acute sense of smell used to locate concealed and buried prey. Hearing no better than a humans; ability to spot avian predators at long distances and poor vision in dim light suggust possible color vision. Foraging pack maintains vocal and visual contact while each individtlal sniffs, scratches, probes, and digs for food. Irresistible urge to follow any pack member moving away keeps them together and headed in same direction. Suricates systematically hunt entire home range, taking different route every day. They rapidly dig trenches as deep as 1 ft (30 cm) in hard ground to unearth fat beetle larvae. Large or unfamiliar prey is battered with foreplays before biting it tentatively, then hard , finishing with death shake. Rodents, lizards, and birds are dismembered by pulling down with claws while holding prey in jaws and pulling up.

REPRODUCTION

Up to 3 litters a year, (3 litter, during rains. Gestation 11 weeks.

OFFSPRING AND COMMUNAL CARE

Nonbreeding pack members babysit while mothers go foraging to keep producing milk. Mothers lick babies' genitals and anus to stimulate elimination, also lick-clean their faces and bodies. During weaning, beginning at 3 to 4 weeks, ending at 6 to 9 weeks, mother teaches juveniles to forage for themselves by running away from them white carrying food, using their newly awakened tendency to snatch and consume food without sharing, as adults do.

PREDATORS

Mainly hawks and eagles. Suricates rely on early warning by guard standing lookout from highest nearby vantage point while pack forages-lessening the danger of foraging in the open despite inability to climb well or run fast. Fail-safe back-up is an elaborate intimidation/threat display to deter ground predators (see below, under Aggression).

DIFFERENCES IN SURICATE BEHAVIOR

Expect to see and hear of Usual context and meaning.

Scent-marking

With anal pouch. Concentrated on vertical and flat surfaces around den entrances; males mark more often than females.
Urine-marking; by males, against uprights, cocking leg like a dog.

Aggression

Erect posture with hair brisking. Changes appearance from long, low animal to much bigger, dangerous-looking round object.

Mock or real mobbing attack; pack members bound high in place while growling, head.darting, and spitting.

Creates impression of large, angry animal approaching.

Other aggressive sounds: clucking. Scolding ''cross'' sound; defensive threat as when defending food.

Sociable Behavior

CALLS

Murmuring sounds voiced during practically any activity.Group cohesion calls voiced especially by females.

Wurruck-wurruck; soft trilling. Sound of contentment.

Courtshlp

Semiserious fighting; one gripping partner by muzzle. Prelude to sexual activity, sometimes provoked by female nipping male's cheek.

Male responds by attempted mounting, gripping female's nape if she resists. Grip induces passivity in female, as in juvenile when picked up.

No neck grip during coitus.

Parents, Helpers, and Offspring

Food sharing with juveniles. Privileged status ends (once youngsters are able to feed themselves.
JUVENILE CALLS

Nest chirp. Birdlike call of newborn; sustained while awake.
High-pitched repetitive sharp call. Juvenile version of alarm bark.

Signals distress; also functions to make littermates cluster together.

Babies purr, sometimes make treading motions. While nursing.

Play

Sparring. By all pack members during rest periods.

Playfighting: juveniles grapple, standing and clasping one another, wrestle, paw, etc.

Displacement digging.

Stiff-legged rocking. Rehearsing threat display.

Response to Predators

Alert postures and uneasy peeping. By lockout in particular.
SOUNDS of ALARM

Pack members respond appropriately to different signals.

Clear, drawn-out note, varying intensity. Signals avian predator.

Wurruck-wurruck; gruffer, more abrupt call. Signals ground predator.

Alarm bark: repetitive, short, sharp call. Response to various disturbances, especially noises; given primarily by dominant males (aggressive component).
RESPONSE TO ALARM SIGNALS

Juveniles run to mother, press close to her.

Flight to cover.

Threat displays and mobbing attack (see under Aggression). When pack caught in open far from refuge.

Adults seen to lie on juveniles to protect them from goshawk attack.

Reprinted from "The Safari Companion" by Richard Estes

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