The meerkat (Suricata suricatta) or suricate is a small mongoose found in southern Africa. They live in rock crevices in stony, often calcareous areas, and in large burrow systems in plains. They use a broad variety of calls to communicate with one another for different purposes and their favorite prey items are primarily insects.
Meerkats have slim build characterized by a broad head, large eyes, a pointed snout, long legs, a thin tapering tail, and a brindled coat pattern. The soft coat is light grey to yellowish brown with alternate, poorly-defined light and dark bands on the back. Individuals from the southern part of the range tend to be darker. The guard hairs, the light at the base, have two dark rings and are tipped with black or silvery white; several such hairs aligned together give rise to the coat pattern. The head is mostly white and the underparts are covered sparsely with dark reddish-brown fur, with the dark skin underneath showing through. The eyes, in sockets covering over 20% of the skull length, are capable of binocular vision. The slim, yellowish tail, unlike the bushy tails of many other mongooses, measures 17 to 25 cm (6.7 to 9.8 in) and is tipped with black.
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