What kind of food does the meerkat eat?

Meerkats are known as meerkats, also known as fine-tailed meerkats, gray marshes, gray claws, etc., are small mammals of the family Linnaeus, inhabiting grasslands and open plains, and their distribution depends on the type of soil. They are mainly distributed in deserts or sand dunes of terrestrial biological communities. Let's take a look at what meerkats eat.

What kind of food does the meerkat eat?

Meerkats feed on insects, but also eat lizards, snakes, spiders, plants, eggs and small mammals. Like other meerkats, meerkats develop immunity to many poisons, which allows meerkats to eat scorpions (including thorns) and some snakes without causing discomfort, poisoning or death. Meerkats don't store fat in their bodies, so they starve to death if they don't look for food every day.

The social groups of meerkats

Meerkats are extremely social animals. Each meerkat population is usually composed of 2 to 50 foxes. The group constructs a maternal society whose internal rulers are male leaders and female leaders, in which male leaders are chosen by female leaders. Under this, other meerkats belong to the inferior meerkats, and the cubs have a slightly higher status, but the cubs must leave the family after they reach the age of 3, and the male cubs will become the leaders of other ethnic groups or form new groups. Females may return to the group after leaving, and individuals in the same group often groom each other to strengthen social ties.

Burrowing habits of meerkats

Meerkats are very social animals who dig holes, live together in large, multi-entrance mesh caves that they dig, and leave only during the day. In the early morning when the sun rises, the meerkats climb out of the cave one by one, shoulder-to-shoulder, hug and face the sun. During the day, they look for food, take care of their cubs, defend their territory, take a nap in the shade or huddle in a hole. One or more meerkats stand sentry posts to warn of the danger of approaching when other foxes are foraging or playing. When it is found that the predator meerkat sentinel will call out a warning to the rest of the members, they will flee or hide in a hole scattered around the territory. the sentinel will be the first to emerge from the hole to detect the predator's movement and keep the other members in the cave. if it does not threaten the Sentinel to stop warning, the other members will appear safely.

Population status of meerkats

Meerkats are distributed in the Kalahari Desert of South Africa, mainly including Angola, Namibia and Botswana, and are not close to the fragile and endangered threshold for species survival (distribution area or fluctuation area is less than 20000 square kilometers. habitat quality, population size, distribution area fragmentation), the population trend is stable, so it is evaluated as a species without survival crisis. Currently, meerkats are included in the World Conservation Union (IUCN) 2015 Red list of Endangered species ver 3.1-non-endangered (LC).