Meerkat
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822 creative works found
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Meerkat sitting in a hollowed log
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I just had to visit Meerkat Manor again. The black masks around the eyes act like sunglasses and reduce the glare from the sun. This means a meerkat can look straight into the sun and spot birds of prey. Meerkats have a membrane between their eyelid and their eye which removes sand when they blink.
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This meerkat was acting as the sentinel, or lookout, for the troupe. It was funny to watch him twitch whenever a plane flew overhead…
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well.. i think he had quite enough :-)
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Today at Adelaide Zoo, this little meerkat boy was on guard …. when a bee flew close to his head. He was interested but made no move to do anything about the bee.
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Caught this cute guy staring straight up at my lens… Taken at the Paradise Wildlife Park in Broxbourne, Herts.
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Wildlife and wild places. From the city of my birth, Cape Town to the plains where zebra stallions fight for their mares. Endangered species and cute species, all fighting for survival.
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The Meerkat Scientific Classification: / Kingdom: Animalia / Phylum: Chordata / Class: Mammalia / Order: Carnivora / Family: Herpestidae / Genus: Suricata / Desmarest, 1804 / Species: S. suricatta / Conservation Status: Least Concern The meerkat or suricate Suricata suricatta is a small mammal and a member of the mongoose family. It inhabits all parts of the Kalahari Desert in Botswana and South Africa. A group of meerkats is called a “mob”, “gang”, or “clan”. A meerkat clan often contains around 20 meerkats at a time, but some superfamilies have had 50 or more. Meerkats have an average life span of 12-14 years. Meerkat” is a loan word from Afrikaans. The name came from Dutch but by misidentification. Dutch meerkat and German Meerkatze refer to the “guenon”, a monkey of the Cercopithecus genus. The word “meerkat” is Dutch for “lake cat”, but the suricata is not in the cat family, and neither suricatas nor guenons are attracted to lakes; the word possibly started as a Dutch adaptation of a derivative of Sanskrit markaţa मर्कट = “monkey”, perhaps in Africa via an Indian sailor onboard a Dutch East India Company ship. The traders of the Dutch East India Company were likely familiar with monkeys, but the Dutch settlers attached the name to the wrong animal at the Cape. The suricata is called stokstaartje = “little stick-tail” in Dutch and Erdmännchen = “little earth-man” in German. The scientific name suricate comes from the Swahili language and it means “rock-cat”. According to African popular belief (mainly in the Zambian/Zimbabwean region), the meerkat is also known as the sun angel, as it protects villages from the moon devil or the werewolf which is believed to attack stray cattle or lone tribesmen. Meerkats forage in a group with one “sentry” on guard watching for predators while the others search for food. Sentry duty is usually approximately an hour long. Baby meerkats do not start foraging for food until they are about 1 month old, and do so by following an older member of the group who acts as the pup’s tutor.[citation needed] The meerkat standing guard makes peeping sounds when all is well. If the meerkat spots danger, it barks loudly or whistles excerpt from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meerkat
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Three Meerkats
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This little fella was shot at Chester zoo in the North west of England. /
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another version dont place up much art so i wanted sum colour in stead of my general non backgrounds
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/ © OutsideTheBox Photography ~ by Trish Marinozzi
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I took the shot of this lovely little Squirrel when I was walking around Forty Hall Estate in Enfield. He looked just like a Meerkat up on his hind legs. NIKON D60 DSLR / F-stop f/5.6 / Exposure time 1/125 sec / ISO speed 280 / Aperture priority / Focal length 300 mm on a 70 – 300 mm Nikon lens All the materials contained may not be reproduced, copied, edited, published, transmitted or uploaded in any way without my permission. My images do not belong to the public domain sector. Please ask for my permission before using this image for any purpose and in anyway because without it will lead to legal action. ©Anthony Hedger 2009.
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Lowry Park Zoo, Tampa, Florida Olympus SP570 UZ
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saying, “Person with the camera say what?”
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Meerkat Portrait…... I will donate 100% of proceeds from the sales of this image to The Wildlife Trusts Meerkats are primarily insectivores, but also eat lizards, snakes, scorpions, spiders, plants, eggs, small mammals, millipedes, centipedes and, more rarely, small birds. They are partially immune to certain venoms; they are immune to the very strong venom of the scorpions of the Kalahari, unlike humans. They have no excess body fat stores, so foraging for food is a daily need. Meerkats forage in a group with one sentry on guard watching for predators while the others search for food. Sentry duty is usually approximately an hour long.
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3d art of group of Meerkats on a log. Views 708 Made with bryce 3d. The meerkat or suricate Suricata suricatta is a small mammal and a member of the mongoose family. It inhabits all parts of the Kalahari Desert in Botswana and South Africa. A group of meerkats is called a “mob”, “gang” or “clan”. A meerkat clan often contains about 20 meerkats at a time, but some superfamilies have had 50 or more. Meerkats have an average life span of 12-14 years. / “Meerkat” is a loanword from Afrikaans. The name has a / Dutch origin but by misidentification. Dutch meerkat / refers to the “guenon”, a monkey of the Cercopithecus / genus. The word “meerkat” is Dutch for “lake cat”, but the / suricata is not in the cat family, and neither suricatas nor / guenons are attracted to lakes; the word possibly started / as a Dutch adaptation of a derivative of Sanskrit markaţa / “monkey”, perhaps in Africa via an Indian sailor / onboard a Dutch East India Company ship. The traders of / the Dutch East India Company were likely familiar with / monkeys, but the Dutch settlers attached the name to the / wrong animal at the Cape. The suricata is called / stokstaartje = “little stick-tail” in Dutch. According to African popular belief (mainly in the / Zambian/Zimbabwean region), the meerkat is also known / as the sun angel, as it protects villages from the moon / devil or the werewolf which is believed to attack stray / cattle or lone tribesmen. The meerkat is a small diurnal herpestid (mongoose) / weighing on average about 731 grams (1.61 pounds) for / males and 720 grams (1.58 pounds) for females. Its long / slender body and limbs give it a body length of 25 to 35 / cm (10 to 14 inches) and an added tail length of 17 to 25 / cm (7 to 10 inches). Its tail is not bushy like all other / mongoose species, but is rather long and thin and tapers / to a black or reddish colored pointed tip. The meerkat / uses its tail to balance when standing upright. Its face / tapers, coming to a point at the nose, which is brown. / The eyes always have black patches around them, which / help deflect the sun’s glare. The meerkat has small black / crescent-shaped ears that can close when digging to keep / sand out. Like cats, meerkats have binocular vision, a / large peripheral range, depth perception, and eyes on the / front of their faces. / At the end of each of a meerkat’s “fingers” is a non- / retractable, strong, 2 cm (0.8 inches) long, curved claw / used for digging underground burrows and digging for / prey. Claws are also used with muscular hindlegs to help / climb the occasional tree. They have four toes on each / foot and long slender limbs. The coat is usually fawn- / colored peppered with gray, tan, or brown with a silver / tint. They have short parallel stripes across their backs, / extending from the base of the tail to the shoulders. The / patterns of stripes are unique to each meerkat. The / underside of the meerkat has no markings but the belly / has a patch which is only sparsely covered with hair and / shows the black skin underneath. The meerkat uses this / area to absorb heat while standing on its rear legs, usually / early in the morning after cold desert nights. Meerkats are primarily insectivores, but also eat lizards, / snakes, scorpions, spiders, plants, eggs, small mammals, / millipedes, centipedes and, more rarely, small birds. They / are partially immune to certain venoms; they are immune / to the very strong venom of the scorpions of the Kalahari / Desert, unlike humans. They have no excess body fat / stores, so foraging for food is a daily need. Meerkats forage in a group with one “sentry” on guard / watching for predators while the others search for food. / Sentry duty is usually approximately an hour long. Baby / meerkats do not start foraging for food until they are / about 1 month old, and do so by following an older / member of the group who acts as the pup’s tutor. The / meerkat standing guard makes peeping sounds when all is / well. If the meerkat spots danger, it barks loudly or / whistles. Meerkats become sexually mature at about one year of / age and can have 1 to 5 pups in a litter, with 3 pups being / the most common litter size. Wild meerkats may have up / to four litters per year. Meerkats are iteroparous and can / reproduce any time of the year but most births occur in / the warmer seasons. The female meerkat can have more / than one litter a year. The pups are allowed to leave the / burrow at three weeks old. When the pups are ready to / emerge from the burrow, the whole clan of meerkats will / stand around the burrow to watch. Some of the / adolescents might try to show off so they can have more / attention than the pups. Reports show that there is no precopulatory display; the / male ritually grooms the female until she submits to him / and copulation begins, the male generally adopting a / seated position during the act. Gestation lasts / approximately 11 weeks and the young are born within / the underground burrow and are altricial. The young’s / ears open at about 15 days of age, and their eyes at 10-14 / days. They are weaned around 49 to 63 days. They do / not come above ground until at least 21 days of age and / stay with babysitters near the burrow. After another / week or so, they join the adults on a foraging party. / Usually, the alpha pair reserves the right to mate and / normally kills any young not its own, to ensure that its / offspring has the best chance of survival. The dominan / couple may also evict, or kick out the mothers of the / offending offspring. New meerkat groups are often formed by evicted females / pairing with roving males. If the members of the alpha group are relatives (this tends to happen when the alpha female dies and is succeeded / by a daughter), they do not mate with each other and / reproduction is by group females stray-mating with / roving males from other groups; in this situation, / pregnant females tend to kill and eat any pups born to / other females. Meerkats are small burrowing animals, living in large / underground networks with multiple entrances which / they leave only during the day. They are very social, / living in colonies averaging 20-30 members. Animals in / the same group regularly groom each other to strengthen / social bonds. The alpha pair often scent-mark / subordinates of the group to express their authority, and / this is usually followed by the subordinates grooming the / alphas and licking their faces. This behavior is also usually / practiced when group members are reunited after a short / period apart. Most meerkats in a group are all siblings or / offspring of the alpha pair. Meerkats demonstrate altruistic behavior within their / colonies; one or more meerkats stand sentry (lookout) / while others are foraging or playing, to warn them of / approaching dangers. When a predator is spotted, the / meerkat performing as sentry gives a warning bark, and / other members of the gang will run and hide in one of / the many bolt holes they have spread across their / territory. The sentry meerkat is the first to reappear from / the burrow and search for predators, constantly barking / to keep the others underground. If there is no threat, the / sentry meerkat stops signaling and the others feel safe to / emerge. Meerkats also babysit the young in the group. Females / that have never produced offspring of their own often / lactate to feed the alpha pair’s young, while the alpha / female is away with the rest of the group. They also / protect the young from threats, often endangering their / own lives. On warning of danger, the babysitter takes the / young underground to safety and is prepared to defend / them if the danger follows. If retreating underground is / not possible, she collects all young together and lies on / top of them. Meerkats are also known to share their burrow with the / Yellow Mongoose and ground squirrel, species with / which they do not compete for resources. If they are / unlucky, sometimes they share their burrow with snakes. / Like most species, meerkat young learn by observing and / mimicking adult behaviour though adults also engage in / active instruction. For example, meerkat adults teach their / pups how to eat a venomous scorpion: they will remove / the stinger and help the pup learn how to handle the / creature. Despite this altruistic behaviour, meerkats sometimes kill / young members of their group. Subordinate meerkats / have been seen killing the offspring of more senior / members in order to improve their own offspring’s / position. Meerkats have been known to engage in social activities, / including what appear to be wrestling matches and foot / races. From Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia.
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A mid air droplet collision which reminded me of the feisty little creature of the title!
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A meerkat with plenty of character at Werribee Open Range Zoo. I appreciate you taking time to view my work, and I really enjoy reading your comments. / Thanks for visiting :-) Photograph Details / Canon 40D w/ EF 70-200mm f/2.8 L IS / Focal length: 200mm / ISO: 400 / Shutter: 1/1000 sec / Aperture: f/4
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