BIRDWALKERMONDAY

This Blog contains Wildlife and Bird Photos from Walks, Safaris, Birding Trips and Vacations. Most of the pictures have been taken with my Nikon P900 and P950X cameras. On the right of the page are labels for each species of Bird/Animal etc. Click on a label and it will show all of the photos taken for that species. I am adding as much information for each species as I can from sources Wikipedia. To see any pictures at full size just click on the picture.

Showing posts with label MEERKAT (Suricata suricatta). Show all posts

Sunday 24 March 2024

14-10-2015 VALENCIA BIOPARC - MEERKAT (Suricata suricatta) NIKON P900

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.

Tuesday 6 February 2024

2-2-2024 BIOPARC, VALENCIA - MEERKAT (Suricata suricatta)

The meerkat (Suricata suricatta) or suricate is a small mongoose found in southern Africa. It is characterised by a broad head, large eyes, a pointed snout, long legs, a thin tapering tail, and a brindled coat pattern. The head-and-body length is around 24–35 cm (9.4–13.8 in), and the weight is typically between 0.62 and 0.97 kg (1.4 and 2.1 lb). The coat is light grey to yellowish-brown with alternate, poorly-defined light and dark bands on the back. Meerkats have foreclaws adapted for digging and have the ability to thermoregulate to survive in their harsh, dry habitat. Three subspecies are recognised.

Meerkats are highly social, and form packs of two to 30 individuals each that occupy home ranges around 5 km2 (1.9 sq mi) in area. There is a social hierarchy—generally dominant individuals in a pack breed and produce offspring, and the nonbreeding, subordinate members provide altruistic care to the pups. Breeding occurs around the year, with peaks during heavy rainfall; after a gestation of 60 to 70 days, a litter of three to seven pups is born.

They live in rock crevices in stony, often calcareous areas, and in large burrow systems in plains. The burrow systems, typically 5 m (16 ft) in diameter with around 15 openings, are large underground networks consisting of two to three levels of tunnels. These tunnels are around 7.5 cm (3.0 in) high at the top and wider below, and extend up to 1.5 m (4 ft 11 in) into the ground. Burrows have moderated internal temperatures and provide a comfortable microclimate that protects meerkats in harsh weather and at extreme temperatures.

Meerkats are active during the day, mostly in the early morning and late afternoon; they remain continually alert and retreat to burrows when sensing danger. They use a broad variety of calls to communicate among one another for different purposes, for example to raise an alarm on sighting a predator. Primarily insectivorous, meerkats feed heavily on beetles and lepidopterans, arthropods, amphibians, small birds, reptiles, and plant material in their diet.

Commonly living in arid, open habitats with little woody vegetation, meerkats occur in southwestern Botswana, western and southern Namibia, and northern and western South Africa; the range barely extends into southwestern Angola. With no significant threats to the population, the meerkat is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List. Meerkats are widely depicted in television, movies and other media.

Thursday 11 November 2021

3-11-2021 BIOPARC, VALENCIA - MEERKAT (Suricata suricatta)

The meerkat has a wide distribution in southern Africa, from the extreme southwest of Angola, through Namibia and Botswana, and into the west and north of South Africa. They live in areas with the stony, often calcareous ground in a variety of arid, open habitats with little woody vegetation. Meerkats are common in savannahs, open plains, and rocky areas beside dry rivers. They are absent from true deserts but may occur in semi-desert regions.

The meerkat is like only three other mongoose species, in that it is highly sociable and inhabits territories in packs. A pack usually has 10 to 30 individuals (although much larger ones are not uncommon where the food supply is plentiful) consisting of 3 or 4 family units with a male, female, and their young. Packs can move collectively in search of food, to escape high predator pressure, and during floods. Meerkats live in large burrow systems that are typically 5 m (16 ft) in diameter with around 15 openings; these large underground networks consist of 2 to 3 levels of tunnels. Once meerkats come out of their burrows in the early morning sun to sunbathe, most of them will go off to seek food while the others act as guards or babysit the young. By standing on their hind legs up on mounds and in bushes, the guards are able to have a good view of approaching predators, particularly those in the sky. They will use different alarm calls to alert the group to the danger, and often the whole group will dive into the burrow to hide.

Meerkats exhibit a monogamous mating system, meaning that the dominant male and female of each group are usually the only individuals to successfully breed. However, subordinate females very occasionally will reproduce, and subordinate males will temporarily leave the group to try to mate with females of other groups, which suggests polygynous behavior. The breeding season in the wild runs from October to April, whereas in captivity they breed year-round. Gestation lasts for 11 weeks, with 2 to 5 pups being born. The pups stay in their burrow for three weeks, ‘babysat’ by helpers. When they are four weeks old, the pups will begin to go with the group to forage, and for their first 49 to 63 days will be fed by the helpers, at the same time being taught how to get their own food. The young become independent enough to forage at around 12 weeks of age. This species becomes reproductively mature at about 1 year of age

Meerkats are carnivores (insectivores), eating insects such as scorpions (they are immune to venom), beetles, spiders, crickets, centipedes, millipedes, and worms. They also eat eggs, roots, tubers, small reptiles, and small mammals.