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Location:

Predator passage - across from Lions, Hyenas, & Leopard, next to Fennec Fox

Meerkat

  • Stabler (M) - age 10 (as of Nov 2024)

  • Plymouth (M) - age 9 (as of Nov 2024)

  • Joseph (M) - age 9 (as of Nov 2024)

Identifying Features:

  • Stabler has "angel wing" dark eyeliner.

  • Plymouth is the largest of the three.

  • Joseph is usually the sentry.

History:

  • The meerkats have arrived!

  • Three males, brothers, from Capron Park Zoo in Attleboro, MA

  • They are getting comfortable with their new exhibit and will have access to their night house, so they may not always be visible.

More Information:

  • Member of the mongoose family

  • Live in groups or mobs of up to 50 individuals, working together to gather food, take care of babies, & keep a look out for predators

  • The female holds the highest rank, while the male guards his mate at the mob's territory.

  • Born blind and deaf, the pups first leave the burrow at about 3 weeks.

  • Elder meerkats baby-sit and teach pups things like how to avoid scorpion's stinger and where to dig for grubs and tubers.

  • Sentries are critical to a mob's survival.

  • They eat invertebrates, helping to keep agricultural pest populations under control.

  • Meerkats are mainly insectivorous, but will take small vertebrates, eggs, and plant matter

  • Live in deserts and grasslands of the southern tip of Africa

  • Weigh up to 2.2 pounds

  • Extremely social, living together in burrows that they did with long, sharp claws

  • Burrows can be 16 feet long with multiple entrances, tunnels, and rooms.

  • Anti-predator behaviors including alarm call, maintaining alert stance, running for cover, defensive threats, mobbing an enemy, self defense, and covering the young.

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