Meerkat

[ExFmem]

Communication
Meerkats constantly communicate with one another in three different ways: body language, scent, and sound.

Sound: Though there is much research that still needs to be undertaken to further understand meerkat vocalization, to date more than 20 different sounds have been recorded which have different meanings. These consist of one, two, three, and even four syllable calls and fall into six categories:

Foraging calls
Pup feeding calls
Lost calls
Group leading calls
Guarding or sentry calls
Alarm calls

.Foraging calls - while out looking for food, they are are constantly communicating in what sounds like a kind of growling. It helps them to keep track of one another's location since they forage up to 15 feet (5 meters) apart.

.Pup feeding calls - When the young are learning how to forage, they are very loud and can be heard up to a hundred yards away.



.Lost calls - If they become separated from the adults, the volume of their cries increases so that an adult will come to get them.



.Group leading calls - used by the alpha pair (usually the female) when moving from place to place to maintain group cohesion and direction

. Guarding/sentry calls - A low, constant peeping, known as the watchman's song, is made when all is well. These sounds communicate to everyone else what is happening during the watch. If a predator is spotted, the guard alerts the others with a bark or whistle, followed by an Alarm call, based on the threat.

. Alarm calls (enemies, weather systems) - There are different calls for land predators and for those coming from the air. When a predator is spotted at a distance, a beeping sound is given, almost like a yellow alert. If the predator gets closer, the sound differentiates depending on the type of predator. The martial eagle tends to get the most frantic alarm even from a great distance. When the alarm is raised, the meerkats usually run for the nearest hole, called a bolt hole. These are special tunnels with wider openings designed to hold a crowd of meerkats at once. Meerkats memorize the locations of thousands of bolt holes within their territory and are able to run to the closest one at a moment's notice.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/life/Meerkat#p00f3h6l

[Flutterby]

Those little ones are so sweet! Great info.

[Mel]

Cute and clever critters! Apart from when they get fooled by a drongo

[nan]

cute, cute little Suricates

I hope a little one, should never has a voice extinction

[Amoli]

Excellent info Exfmem... wow, I am learning so much on the Meerkat.

I will certainly sit still and listen if I can hear sounds next time I see them.

[Flutterby]

I recently watched a programme about the intelligence of animals and how they communicate and one of the animals they focused on was the meerkat...they showed all those different situations that ExFmem told us about!

[ExFmem]

There was also a recent research project that provided evidence that the meerkats can identify one another on an INDIVIDUAL basis by the sound each one makes. First they played the sound of 2 DIFFERENT meerkats from 2 separate locations and there was no reaction. Then they played the sound of the SAME meerkat from 2 different locations. It seems the reactions of the other meerkats showed their confusion as to how one meerkat could be in 2 different locations at once, so they obviously identified the sound as coming from a single individual.

(There are other examples of animal species recognizing individuals from their sound in the book "Animal Wise". I think I wrote about the book in the Rec. Reading section earlier.)

[Flutterby]

[ExFmem]

(The book I mentioned can be found under the Rec. Reading Thread.)

More importantly, I want to highlight ALL the books recommended on that thread, as well as pay homage to Mel for her excellent choices. I use that thread for my reading list, not only while on vacation, but while at home wishing I were back "Home" in Africa.

[ExFmem]

Reproduction
Breeding season: October-April in the wild. Year-round in captivity.
Litter size: 2 to 4, very occasionally 5
Gestation: Eleven weeks.
Meerkats are sexually mature at one year.

The Alpha male and female do most of the breeding, and sex is initiated by males fighting with females. (We humans have a phrase for that…)

Female meerkats are pregnant for about 11 weeks before birthing a litter of two to four pups on average.The dominant female can have several litters a year, but usually she has her pups during times when there is plenty of food, which is generally during the rainy season. Pups are born with eyes and ears shut and are mostly hairless at birth. Their eyes open after two weeks, and pups start eating food other than milk at three weeks. When they are four weeks old, the pups first venture out of their den and are weaned by nine weeks.