Meerkats

If you want to see more of Timon from The Lion King, then you better check out The Lion King 1½ , the prequel of sorts to the Lion King, with sidekicks Timon and Pumbaa now starring as the animated film’s main protagonists. The film focuses on the two pals and their adventures before and during the actual events of the first Lion King movie, showing that the duo has a deeper connection to Simba and his pride than what was first previously thought.

Perhaps the best thing about The Lion King is how it depicts previously unheard of animals on the big screen. One such animal would be the meerkat, Timon’s character. As seen on the prequel, meerkats are highly social animals, living in large groups comprised of several families living underground. The squirrel-sized animal belongs to the mongoose family, and is perhaps best known for the upright posture they assume when looking out for predators in the plains of South Africa.

As proof of the strength of the social bond meerkats have in their community, these animals always work in numbers. While one group of meerkats go foraging for food, another group watches over them and act as sentries, always on the lookout for predators such as hawks and eagles that can snatch them right off the ground. When a predator is seen, the meerkats instantly make a shrill call, signaling everyone to hide in their burrows.

And speaking of burrows, meerkats have very interesting homes that are sure to impress engineers. Each underground burrow is connected to each other through tunnels, allowing meerkats to move freely through the community.

As cute as meerkats are however, they make terrible pets. Meerkats can be aggressive to their owners, especially when cornered. They have very strong prey instincts, so close interaction with humans is highly difficult to achieve.

Meerkats Video

 

Meerkat

True Wild Life | Meerkat | The meerkat is a small weasel looking mammal similar to a mongoose. The meerkat is exclusively found in parts of South Africa, where the meerkat congregate in groups. The meerkat hang around in gangs of about 20 members but much bigger groups are not uncommon.The meerkat is around 30cm tall with a slightly shorter tail, and meerkats generally live for around 12 years.

The meerkat became much more popular with humans after the BBC television series Meerkat Manor. The program followed the world of one gang meerkats and is a very factual with fantastic images of the meerkats. The meerkat inhabits all parts of the Kalahari Desert in Botswana and South Africa. A group of meerkats is called a mob of meerkats, a gang of meerkats or a clan of meerkats. A meerkat clan often contains about 20 meerkats at a time, but some meerkat superfamilies have been known to have had 50 or more meerkat members.

The meerkat has a long non-retractable, strong, 2 cm long, curved claw on the end of the meerkats fingers which the meerkat uses for digging underground burrows and the meerkats also use these claws for digging for prey. Meerkats have four toes on each foot and long slender limbs which along with the meekats curved claws helps the meerkat to climb trees when the meerkat needs to. The meerkats coat is usually fawn-coloured peppered with gray, tan, or brown with a silver tint. Meerkats also have short parallel stripes across their backs, extending from the base of the meerkats tail to the meerkats shoulders. The meerkat patterns of stripes are unique to each meerkat.

The tummy of the meerkat has no markings but the meerkats belly has a patch which is only sparsely covered with hair and showing the meerkats black skin underneath. The meerkat uses this area of its body to absorb heat while standing on its rear legs. Meerkats are generally known to do this early in the morning after cold desert nights.