Suricata suricatta, Meerkats,
Meerkats.
Suricata suricatta.
Don’t be fooled by their innocent lovable looks because looks can be deceptive.
Unless you belong to their pack then you will always be treated with great suspicion.
Belonging to the mongoose family meerkats are a hardy creature that has a diet consisting of fruit and vegetables, grubs, insects, small rodents, eggs, lizards and poisonous scorpions and snakes.
Amazingly the meerkat when confronted by a scorpion will bite the tail off the scorpion stinger thus rendering it safe.
The scorpion has lost its ability to deliver venom to the meerkat.
However venom still exists in the exoskeleton and the meerkat avoids this venom by rubbing the scorpion in the sand which removes and remaining venom.
Large dark patches around their eyes reduce the amount of glare from the sun which enables the creatures to see birds miles way. Sight is the meerkats most developed sense.
A burrowing creature that is constantly digging the eyes are protected by a membrane that offers protection to the eyes.
Without water a human would have a life expectancy of 3-5 days. So being a desert dweller (native to Africa) it would be assumed that meerkats would not survive without water.
This is not the case as meerkats gain all the moisture they require to survive from the insects and grubs that they consume.
Meerkats are range in length of between 25-cm and have an average weight of 731grams.
A social animal meerkats live in large groups called a gang or a mob and each gang or mob can contain up to 40 individuals and whilst they spend a lot of time playing and grooming one another they can sleep in their burrows for 10-12 hours per day.
Billabong Zoo.
Port Macquarie, New South Wales, Australia.
Suricata suricatta, Meerkats,
Meerkats.
Suricata suricatta.
Don’t be fooled by their innocent lovable looks because looks can be deceptive.
Unless you belong to their pack then you will always be treated with great suspicion.
Belonging to the mongoose family meerkats are a hardy creature that has a diet consisting of fruit and vegetables, grubs, insects, small rodents, eggs, lizards and poisonous scorpions and snakes.
Amazingly the meerkat when confronted by a scorpion will bite the tail off the scorpion stinger thus rendering it safe.
The scorpion has lost its ability to deliver venom to the meerkat.
However venom still exists in the exoskeleton and the meerkat avoids this venom by rubbing the scorpion in the sand which removes and remaining venom.
Large dark patches around their eyes reduce the amount of glare from the sun which enables the creatures to see birds miles way. Sight is the meerkats most developed sense.
A burrowing creature that is constantly digging the eyes are protected by a membrane that offers protection to the eyes.
Without water a human would have a life expectancy of 3-5 days. So being a desert dweller (native to Africa) it would be assumed that meerkats would not survive without water.
This is not the case as meerkats gain all the moisture they require to survive from the insects and grubs that they consume.
Meerkats are range in length of between 25-cm and have an average weight of 731grams.
A social animal meerkats live in large groups called a gang or a mob and each gang or mob can contain up to 40 individuals and whilst they spend a lot of time playing and grooming one another they can sleep in their burrows for 10-12 hours per day.
Billabong Zoo.
Port Macquarie, New South Wales, Australia.