Conservation Photojournalism
Conservation Photojournalism
A researcher weighs wild, habituated meerkats (Suricata suricatta) at their burrow in the Kalahari Desert, South Africa. Meerkats' highly social behavior have made them a model for studying the evolution of sociality in mammals. They have been found to practice such extreme social behavior as allolactation, where multiple females in a group will lactate simultaneously to feed pups that are not their own. Capturing the weights of each individual through time is crucial; in addition to tracking the growth of young meerkats, it can also be an indicator of pregnancy or stress. A few drops of water, a scarce resource here in the desert, are used to lure the meerkats onto the weighing scale.
Meerkat pups at the entrance to a burrow.
Two meerkats look out over a field of devil's thorn flowers (Tribulus zeyheri).
A family group of meerkats huddles sleepily at their burrow entrance at dusk.
A meerkat chews on a scorpion (Parabuthus sp.). Adult meerkats will teach younger meerkats how to disarm a scorpion by biting off the stinger before eating it.
A meerkat stands on guard. In meerkat societies, one or more individuals is always in the guard position, watching out for potential threats to the group. Meerkats periodically make a special call while they are on guard to let the rest of the group know that someone is watching their back. They also have specific calls to warn the group of vertain types of predators (e.g. aerial or terrestrial), and will vary the intensity of the call based on how imminent the threat is. In fact, eerkats are one of the few non-human animals that have been shown to use syntax when communicating with one another.
This meerkat (Suricata suricatta) was found, barely alive, with Cape porcupine (Hystrix africaeaustralis) quills through his abdomen. It's not clear how this happened, but porcupines and meerkats both use burrows. It is possible that the meerkat entered a burrow that had a porcupine in it, and the porcupine backed quickly out of the burrow, spines first. This is a common defensive maneuver for porcupines.
A young meerkat stands among its family in a field of devilthorn flowers (Tribulus zeyheri). The family is looking out for predators or for other enemy meerkat groups. Young meerkats learn behaviors like this one from watching their family members.
Two meerkats stand at a burrow entrance in a field of Kalahari sour grass (Schmidtia kalihariensis).
