What IS a meerkat?

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ozzy not osbourne 🦇

Jan 5, 2023 12:13:00 GMT -5

Dominant Female

female

she/her

28 y/o

600 posts

Post by ozzy not osbourne 🦇 on Jan 5, 2023 12:13:00 GMT -5

▶ BASICS:

SCIENTIFIC NAME: Suricata suricatta
NICKNAMES: Suricates, sun angels
REGION: Kalahari Desert in both Botswana and South Africa; Namib Desert a bit higher up in Africa.
LIFESPAN: In captivity, 'kats have reached 15 years old, but it is normally around ~12. In the wild, their lifespan is usually cut in half due to the dangers of the desert.
DIET: Omnivorous; primarily insectivore
WEIGHT: Around two pounds; males tend to be heavier.
HEIGHT: One foot... and that's when standing upright! Once again, males are more likely to be slightly taller.
TOP SPEED: ~20 mph

▶ INTRODUCTION:

Perhaps the most popular mongoose species, meerkats have become a quite known species; from the character Timon of The Lion King, the 2008 documentary The Meerkats, and the Animal Planet hit Meerkat Manor. They are social creatures and do not do well alone; they need the comfort of their own species. As a matter of fact, they are the second-most social mammal on the planet, only behind the naked mole rat. Meerkats live in groups that are typically around 20 members, though "supergroups" have been recorded with around 50 meerkats. Each family is ruled by a dominant pair; meerkats are matriarchal, meaning it's the female that calls the shots in a mob (a family of meerkats). Being mongooses, they are immune to some venoms, like scorpions, and they can even (but definitely not always) survive snake bites that could kill multiple humans! Meerkats are real jabbermouths, too, making a wide range of noises, but the most common sound is a sort of chirp or bark. Their calls are all unique and have distinct meanings; they even have different sounds when alerting the gang of an aerial versus ground predator.
Oh, and we can't move on without mentioning their famed characteristic... meerkats can balance on their hind legs using their long tails for balance and do so frequently to get a better vantage point. They can also sit on their haunches.

▶ DESCRIPTION:

Meerkats are moongooses with a mostly sandy-brown coat that is meant for camouflage; each meerkat can be of a more or less orange, brown, or gray hue. There have been recorded incidents of a ginger meerkat, albinos, and ones with darker patches, but this is very rare. Meerkats have darker, jagged stripes on their backs (every meerkat's markings are unique) and black "masks" around their dark brown eyes; these are used as a visor so meerkats can stare right into the sun, useful for sentries. A meerkat's abdomen has sparser fur and reveals their black skin; this patch is used as a conductor of heat (Kalahari nights are sometimes below freezing, so when meeting the day, they face their bellies to the sun). The animal has long, non-retractable claws (0.8 inch) in comparison to its overall length, built for digging. They also have large, sharp teeth that can inflict serious damage. They have stellar long-distance vision and can spot a predator from half a mile away!

▶ BEHAVIOR:

They are small, but feisty as all hell. Meerkats are quite interesting creatures of stark juxtaposition: one moment they could be risking their lives to save a pup, the next one might be eating one. Meerkats are incredibly curious animals as well as playful; the juveniles and teens playfight frequently, and sometimes, even the dominants might join in. These animals can also be deeply affectionate with those of their own gang; members will groom each other regularly not only to remove pests, but to reinforce bonds. Meerkats in isolation do very poorly; they experience a notable decline in mental wellbeing.

▶ TERRITORY:

The typical meerkat mob has a three square-mile turf, claimed via lying down the mob's scent. As can probably be expected, smaller mobs will have less land (having to win territory is a possible ruiner for new gangs), and bigger, more. This is where they forage and pick burrows from; meerkats are fiercely territorial, and thus intruding into a neighbor's terrain usually ends in a battle, only ending when the weaker mob retreats.
Many burrows are present in a gang's territory and can be quite the maze, but not for the family thanks to smell plus memorization. Burrows are deep and can extent for quite a whiles, and burrows have multiple entrances (however, there usually is a bigger "main" one). The gang will sleep underground all cuddled together for warmth.
Meerkats rarely build their own burrows; they are typically dug by other animals, usually ground squirrels. The whole family must pitch in to keep the burrow tidy by scooping out excess sand (these critters can shovel back their own weight in seconds!) to prevent tunnels from becoming too narrow. Meerkats move burrows frequently to prevent fleas, ticks, and other nuisances from running rampant, typically around once or twice a month. (Note that to prevent our members from having to make new burrow threads every three weeks or so, we do not follow this rule.) If the mob is rearing pups, then they usually stay longer.
Meerkats also have boltholes littered all throughout their land; over 100 could be present. These dens are used to escape danger during foraging; bolt-holes are also common homes for evictees, rovers, etc. Bolt-holes are smaller than burrows, but do have wider entrances so multiple individuals can rush inside at once.

▶ FORAGING:

Meerkats have a very wide range of prey items and usually dig viciously through the desert sand for their food. They eat a great variety of insects, arachnids, small mammals, lizards, and more; their biggest source of food is insects, and their rarest meal is birds. Meerkats burn fat incredibly quickly, so they have to eat, and a lot; even missing one day of food, such as for babysitters, is taxing. Foraging takes up most of the day (morning to late afternoon, about eight total hours) for this reason. While burrowing for food, the meerkat has two advantages: their ears will close and a clear membrane shields their eyes to keep out dirt.
During foraging, other mob members watch out for predators; they are known as "sentries" and, to let the family know they are on watch, give off a pattern of calls known as the "watchman's song." Sentry duty usually lasts for an hour; the retiring individual makes a unique call to say it's done, and someone else will take its place. Sentries are more frequently males, as babysitters are usually female. Should danger approach, the sentry (or sentries) will alert the mob and react accordingly. Now, sometimes "react accordingly" means to scare the threat off; by banding together, mobs have been recorded to scare off even jackals.

▶ REPRODUCTION:

Meerkats will usually become sexually mature at about one year of age; they are considered adults at the same age. However, there have been very rare cases of even juveniles becoming sexually mature. They do not have an exclusive breeding season, but more females do conceive during the rainy season.
Mating is initiated by the male. The female might "fight" him, but the male will pester her into submission by grabbing the nape of her neck. (We do not follow this rule in RP; if the female refuses him, she is allowed to leave him.) DNA testing has proven that meerkat litters can actually have more than one father. Females are pregnant for about seventy days/11 weeks, and pregnancy becomes apparent at around three weeks after conception. Litters contain typically around 4-5 pups, but litters of up to seven have been recorded. Females are very, very protective over their young. The dominant couple is almost always the only two meerkats in a mob with mating rights; the dominant female is likely to evict a pregnant subordinate or even kill the wayward female's newborn pups. New groups are almost always formed by an evicted female and a roving male. Female meerkats usually will not tolerate any sexual advances made by near relatives, but it has been known that, since meerkats know each other by smell better than sight, if two meerkats forget each other, they have been known to breed.
A female meerkat can become pregnant again less than even a week after giving birth, but the chance of these pups surviving depends on food availability and the meerkat's size; litters conceived that shortly after giving birth are, for the most part, likely to not survive the gestation.
Meerkat pups receive much attention, though the dominant pair's pups usually receive the most. Pups are babysat by other members of the group while the family forages; every member eventually takes a turn, excluding the dominant female and male. Adult, mature females will often still lactate to help feed young, even if it is not their own. Babysitting meerkats are very protective over the young in their care and will willingly put their lives on the line to protect them. They'll even lie on top of them to shield them in case of danger where cover is unavailable.
Pups do not come out of the burrow until about three weeks and do not go foraging until four. The adults bring them food, but sometimes the youngsters will beg or try to steal. Pups are fully weaned at nine weeks old.

▶ MISC:

Age classification: Pups until three months old, juveniles until six months old, teenagers until 12 months old.
Here is a height map according to age for meerkats.
The meerkat's greatest predator is the martial eagle. Other birds of prey, like owls and hawks, are also high risks and are cause for alarm, as are jackals. Snakes are also threats, but are usually confronted by the whole family and mobbed into leaving the area.
Subordinate females are most likely to be evicted once they reach two years old every time a dominant is pregnant; this is when the instinct to have pups truly sets in. Subordinate males are never evicted for the same reasons as females, but they typically leave on their own at around two years old as well due to the same instinct. There have been a few recorded situations where males have been evicted at random, usually by the dominant male.
We do not follow this rule in role-play, but it is incredibly rare for a foreign female to be accepted into another mob. For females, it's either you stay in your birth mob, or you form your own. Strange males are also usually not welcomed, unless of course the dominant female is absent of a mate.

Edited May 9, 2023 14:38:19 GMT -5 By ozzy not osbourne 🦇