4000 x 4000 px | 33,9 x 33,9 cm | 13,3 x 13,3 inches | 300dpi
Data acquisizione:
6 ottobre 2013
Ubicazione:
Monarto Plains Zoo South Australia, Adelaide, Australia
Altre informazioni:
The meerkat or suricate (Suricata suricatta) is a small carnivoran belonging to the mongoose family (Herpestidae). It is the only member of the genus Suricata.[2] Meerkats live in all parts of the Kalahari Desert in Botswana, in much of the Namib Desert in Namibia and southwestern Angola, and in South Africa. A group of meerkats is called a "mob", "gang" or "clan". A meerkat clan often contains about 20 meerkats, but some super-families have 50 or more members. In captivity, meerkats have an average life span of 12–14 years, and about half this in the wild. "Meerkat" is a loanword from Afrikaans (pronounced [ˈmeə̯rkɐt]).[3] The name has a Dutch origin, but by misidentification. Dutch meerkat refers to the "guenon", a monkey of the Cercopithecus genus.[4] The word "meerkat" is Dutch for "lake cat", but although the suricata is a feliform, it is not of the cat family;[5] the word possibly started as a Dutch adaptation of a derivative of Sanskrit markaţa मर्कट = "ape", [6] perhaps in Africa via an Indian sailor on board a Dutch East India Company ship. Meerkat calls may carry specific meanings, with particular calls indicating the type of predator and the urgency of the situation. In addition to alarm calls, meerkats also make panic calls, recruitment calls, and moving calls. They chirrup, trill, growl, or bark, depending on the circumstances.[36] Meerkats make different alarm calls depending upon whether they see an aerial or a terrestrial predator. Moreover, acoustic characteristics of the call will change with the urgency of the potential predatory episode. Therefore, six different predatory alarm calls with six different meanings have been identified: aerial predator with low, medium, and high urgency; and terrestrial predator with low, medium, and high urgency. Meerkats respond differently after hearing a terrestrial predator alarm call than after hearing an aerial predator alarm call.
