Top 10 Interesting Facts about Meerkats

It is time for me to share the top 10 less-known facts about meerkats. Meerkats is a mammal, and it is a small carnivoran belonging to the mongoose family. Its habitat is in all parts of the Kalahari Desert in Botswana, Namib Desert in Namibia, Namib Desert in Angola, and in South Africa. The way of meerkat life is clustered. A group of meerkat is named a “mob”, “gang” or “clan”. A gang or clan of meerkat contains approximately 20 member. In the description below, I would like to inform you the interesting facts about meerkats.

Facts about Meerkats 1: The Word of Meerkat

Meerkat is a loanword from Afrikaans. In recent literature, suricates were referred as mierkat. In colloquial Afrikaans, mier means terminate, and kat means cat. It has been speculated that the name comes from their frequent association with termit mounds or the termites they eat.

Facts about Meerkats 2: Physical Characteristic

The meerkat is a small diurnal herpestid (mongoose). In general, the weight is about 0.5 to 2.5 kilograms. Its long slender body and limbs give it a body length of 35 – 50 centimetres and an added tail length approximately 25 centimetres. Like cats, meerkats have binocular vision, their eyes being on the front of their faces.

the top 10 amazing facts about meerkat

Facts about Meerkats 3: The Foraging of Meerkats

Definitely, the meerkats are primarily insectivores, also eat other animals for example lizards, snakes, scorpions, spiders, eggs, small mammals, millipedes, centipedes, and more rarely small birds, plants and fungi.

Facts about Meerkats 4: The Meerkats Diet Behaviour

Meerkats start foraging at least until the age of meerkat reached 1 month old. Meerkats hunt in a group with one sentry on guard watching for predators while the others search for food.

Facts about Meerkats 5: The Predators of Meerkats

There are some predators of meerkats including martial eagles, tawny eagles and jackals as the main predators of meerkats. Moreover, meerkats sometimes die of snakebite.

Facts about Meerkats 6: Reproduction of Meerkats

Around two years of age, meerkats become sexually mature. Meerkats can reproduce any time of the year. they can have one to four pups in a litter.

the top 10 amazing facts about meerkat

Facts about Meerkats 7: The Behaviour of Meerkats

Meerkats are small burrowing animals, they live in the large underground networks with multiple entrances which they leave only during the day, except to avoid the heat in the afternoon. They live really sociable or other words they live in colonies.

Facts about Meerkats 8: The Domestication of Meerkats

Honestly, even though meerkats look so cute, they categorised as a wild animal. they can be aggressive, especially toward guests and they also bite.

Facts about Meerkats 9: The Way Meerkats to Survive

To look in case there are predators, one or more meerkats stand sentry, to warn others of approaching dangers. Once a predator is spotted, the meerkat that stands on the sentry gives the warning. Then the others meerkats go hide in the many holes they have spread across their teritory.