** Meerkat Fact **
Young individuals (up to 6 months), especially before reaching independence at 3 months of age, are particularly vulnerable and suffer from a high mortality rate (approximately
30%) from predation (Doolan & Macdonald 1997; Clutton-Brock et al. 1999b).

If a dominant male dies, the dominant female will keep her status as DF an average of 60 percent of the time.

Burrows range from a few holes to labyrinths 82 to 105 ft. across with 90 entrances. Tunnels run at two or three different levels, as deep as 5 ft. and up to 6.5 ft. Most interconnect and have chambers approximately 11" high by 6" wide.

Tuberculosis is a highly contagious chronic disease of the lungs that until anti-biotics were developed was the leading killer of people under the age of 40; it can also spread to the bones or brain which is really bad (the great author Thomas Wolf died horribly from TB of the brain);. it is caused by three specific types of bacteria that are part of the Mycobacterium group: Mycobacterium bovis, M. avium, and M. tuberculosis; bovine TB, caused by M. bovis, can be transmitted from livestock to humans and other animals and no other TB organism has as great a host range - it can infect all warm blooded vertebrates; M.. avium can affect all species of birds, as well as hogs and cattle; M. tuberculosis primarily affects humans but can also be transmitted to hogs, cattle, and dogs; meerkats usually contract bovine t.b. as opposed to human t.b.

Subordinate breeding was less common when rainfall was 0 to 50 mm than for 51 to 100 mm or >100 mm.

"Both sexes of meerkats approach adult weight and foraging success by the middle of their second year of life" (Clutton-Brock, et el)

Typically meerkats chatter to reject or fend off other meerkats. This is usually seen when males approach the dominant female and sniff her. It is difficult to ascertain a precise function for the behaviour but it is apparently fairly rude as the animal chattered at typically moves away. This is a repetitive, high-pitched ke�?ke�?ke�?ke ‘ke sound, made in relation to various interactions including play, submission, sex and food competition. (Earthwatch Field Guide)

Three Lazuli females combined with three Vivian males plus two wild rovers to form Xhosa in late 2002. Their second litter first survived a burrow collapse because of a Gemsbok, was then abandoned, but finally was taken away by three Xhosa adults (1 male, 2 females!) who emigrated to form a new group with wild males. Only one female and one male remained, and she was no longer followed after the male took to roving.

"...In their first 2 months of joining the group while foraging, meerkat pups are fed by older group members. During this period, pups follow potential feeders closely and emit continuous REPEAT CALLS to solicit food. On seeing a feeder locate food, they immediately change from repeat calls to more intense HIGH PITCHED calls.
The use of these two vocalisations may be an adaptation to the constraints imposed by the need for mobile pups to follow potential feeders, as opposed to being brought food in a den or nest" (Manser, et. el)

Among females, dominants and subordinates contributed similarly to social digging, whereas among males, dominants contributed more than subordinates. Although dominant females contributed significantly less than subordinate females to raised guarding, there was no difference between dominant and subordinate males.

Foraging competition occurs over food items or foraging holes. The 3 most common forms of competition include?
- Blocking: Meerkat places its body between the food item/hole and competitor, or growls at
the competitor.
- Pushing: Similar to blocking but with sustained physical contact between the competing
individuals.
- Fighting: Meerkat bites the other in an attempt to win the food item.

Though age and weight are closely correlated for a given weight, subordinate females under 2 years old were more likely to breed than were older subordinates. The frequency of subordinate reproduction does not vary with group size.

By increasing call amplitude, a pup might outcall it's competitors and direct a potential feeder to itself rather than to another pup, even though it is a little further away....

"..while groups are foraging, group members alternate in keeping guard from a raised position on a mound or a dead tree.

Raised guards are present for about half the time that the group forages..." (Clutton-BRock, et el)

Helpers of both sexes contribute to four distinct cooperative activities in their group:

(1) guarding pups at the natal burrow over the first month (babysitting),

(2) feeding 1�?-month-old pups with invertebrates and small vertebrates after they begin to forage with the group (pup feeding)

(3) renovating or extending breeding burrows and bolt holes (social digging)

(4) and watching for predators while other group members are foraging (raised guarding)

...(Clutton-Brock, et el)

"Dominant females did virtually no babysitting, even in the smallest groups... Males, particularly dominants, showed more marked increases in their contributions to babysitting when helper numbers were low..." (Clutton-Brock, et al)

At KMP, each meerkat group has a range of about 5 square kilometers with 5 to 6 sleeping burrows"

" Digging is what meerkats do and they do it masterfully. IN ABOUT A MINUTE, a meerkat can dig a hole big enough to disappear into" (C. Bidstrup, "Kindred Spirits of the Kalahari"/KMP website)

"...the average tenure of females that acquire dominant status and breed at least once
(31.5 months) is longer than that of males (17.4 months)..." (Clutton-Brock, et al)

... Analysis of ‘immediate reciprocity�?(whether the groomee returned grooming of the groomer within the grooming bout) showed that subordinate females reciprocated more frequently than subordinate males when the dominant female initiated grooming. However, the dominant female reciprocated subordinate females less frequently than she did subordinate males. This suggests that the need to placate the dominant female may be higher for subordinate females than for subordinate males, possibly because of the risk of eviction caused by reproductive conflict between females.

"Both sexes of meerkats approach adult weight and foraging success by the middle of their second year of life" (Clutton-Brock, et el)

Typically meerkats chatter to reject or fend off other meerkats. This is usually seen when males approach the dominant female and sniff her. It is difficult to ascertain a precise function for the behaviour but it is apparently fairly rude as the animal chattered at typically moves away. This is a repetitive, high-pitched ke�?ke�?ke�?ke ‘ke sound, made in relation to various interactions including play, submission, sex and food competition. (Earthwatch Field Guide)

"...In their first 2 months of joining the group while foraging, meerkat pups are fed by older group members. During this period, pups follow potential feeders closely and emit continuous REPEAT CALLS to solicit food. On seeing a feeder locate food, they immediately change from repeat calls to more intense HIGH PITCHED calls. The use of these two vocalisations may be an adaptation to the constraints imposed by the need for mobile pups to follow potential feeders, as opposed to being brought food in a den or nest" (Manser, et. el)

-heat index is what the air will feel like. the meteorologist combine the amount of humidity with the temperature and amout of rainfall to calculate what the air will feel like.

There might be duplicates of these.  I was trying to "organize" my facts and with Miss Dizzy Daisy, organization is always an invitation to chaos ....

Recording all instances of one particular behaviour of one specific individual in a predetermined time period is known as Focal Sampling.

To determine who is participating in which activety & how much time doing it is the main purpose of Scan Sampling. Ad lib is recording everything going on.....

Meerkat pups use 2 types of vocalizations to solicit food: repeat calls and high-pitched calls. In the 2 types of vocalizations that pups use to solicit food, REPEAT CALLS evolved to influence the feeder to feed the pup rather than himself/herself. Whereas, HIGH PITCHED calls are used when the potentital feeder finds food (the more intense the call, the better chance of being fed).

Young individuals (up to 6 months), especially before reaching independence at 3 months of age, are particularly vulnerable and suffer from a high mortality rate (approximately
30%) from predation (Doolan & Macdonald 1997; Clutton-Brock et al. 1999b).

If a dominant male dies, the dominant female will keep her status as DF an average of 60 percent of the time.

Burrows range from a few holes to labyrinths 82 to 105 ft. across with 90 entrances. Tunnels run at two or three different levels, as deep as 5 ft. and up to 6.5 ft. Most interconnect and have chambers approximately 11" high by 6" wide.

Tuberculosis is a highly contagious chronic disease of the lungs that until anti-biotics were developed was the leading killer of people under the age of 40; it can also spread to the bones or brain which is really bad (the great author Thomas Wolf died horribly from TB of the brain);. it is caused by three specific types of bacteria that are part of the Mycobacterium group: Mycobacterium bovis, M. avium, and M. tuberculosis; bovine TB, caused by M. bovis, can be transmitted from livestock to humans and other animals and no other TB organism has as great a host range - it can infect all warm blooded vertebrates; M.. avium can affect all species of birds, as well as hogs and cattle; M. tuberculosis primarily affects humans but can also be transmitted to hogs, cattle, and dogs; meerkats usually contract bovine t.b. as opposed to human t.b.

Subordinate breeding was less common when rainfall was 0 to 50 mm than for 51 to 100 mm or >100 mm.

"Both sexes of meerkats approach adult weight and foraging success by the middle of their second year of life" (Clutton-Brock, et el)

Typically meerkats chatter to reject or fend off other meerkats. This is usually seen when males approach the dominant female and sniff her. It is difficult to ascertain a precise function for the behaviour but it is apparently fairly rude as the animal chattered at typically moves away. This is a repetitive, high-pitched ke�?ke�?ke�?ke ‘ke sound, made in relation to various interactions including play, submission, sex and food competition. (Earthwatch Field Guide)

Three Lazuli females combined with three Vivian males plus two wild rovers to form Xhosa in late 2002. Their second litter first survived a burrow collapse because of a Gemsbok, was then abandoned, but finally was taken away by three Xhosa adults (1 male, 2 females!) who emigrated to form a new group with wild males. Only one female and one male remained, and she was no longer followed after the male took to roving.

"...In their first 2 months of joining the group while foraging, meerkat pups are fed by older group members. During this period, pups follow potential feeders closely and emit continuous REPEAT CALLS to solicit food. On seeing a feeder locate food, they immediately change from repeat calls to more intense HIGH PITCHED calls.
The use of these two vocalisations may be an adaptation to the constraints imposed by the need for mobile pups to follow potential feeders, as opposed to being brought food in a den or nest" (Manser, et. el)

Among females, dominants and subordinates contributed similarly to social digging, whereas among males, dominants contributed more than subordinates. Although dominant females contributed significantly less than subordinate females to raised guarding, there was no difference between dominant and subordinate males.

Foraging competition occurs over food items or foraging holes. The 3 most common forms of competition include?
- Blocking: Meerkat places its body between the food item/hole and competitor, or growls at
the competitor.
- Pushing: Similar to blocking but with sustained physical contact between the competing
individuals.
- Fighting: Meerkat bites the other in an attempt to win the food item.

Though age and weight are closely correlated for a given weight, subordinate females under 2 years old were more likely to breed than were older subordinates. The frequency of subordinate reproduction does not vary with group size.

By increasing call amplitude, a pup might outcall it's competitors and direct a potential feeder to itself rather than to another pup, even though it is a little further away....

"..while groups are foraging, group members alternate in keeping guard from a raised position on a mound or a dead tree.

Raised guards are present for about half the time that the group forages..." (Clutton-BRock, et el)

Helpers of both sexes contribute to four distinct cooperative activities in their group:

(1) guarding pups at the natal burrow over the first month (babysitting),

(2) feeding 1�?-month-old pups with invertebrates and small vertebrates after they begin to forage with the group (pup feeding)

(3) renovating or extending breeding burrows and bolt holes (social digging)

(4) and watching for predators while other group members are foraging (raised guarding) ...(Clutton-Brock, et el)