Fun Facts!

When threatened, packs of meerkats appear larger than they actually are. Each individual will arch its back, standing as tall as possible on all four legs, with hair and tail standing on end and its head lowered. At the same time, each will rock back and forth, growl, hiss and spit. Several meerkats doing this together are very intimidating to their enemies.

Meerkats can’t be poisoned by scorpions and snakes.

Suit up: slender-tailed meerkats have black around their eyes to reduce glare from the sun.

Slender-Tailed Meerkat

Suricata suricatta

PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION

The body and legs of the slender-tailed meerkat are long and lean with a head and body length between 10-14 inches. Their tail is thin, adding 7-10 inches to the total length. Males can weigh about two pounds, and females are usually a bit smaller. The coat is peppered gray, tan, or brown with a silver tint, their noses are brown, and they have distinctive dark patches around the eyes. Their tail is yellowish tan with a black tip.

HABITAT

They live in the desert and savannahs of South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe and Mozambique.

DIET IN THE WILD

Slender-tailed meerkats are omnivores, eating insects, spiders, scorpions, fruit, eggs and small mammals.

BEHAVIOR

They are diurnal (active day and night), social and community oriented, living in groups called packs. Nonbreeding individuals act as helpers, guarding and gathering provisions for the young. Packs consist of up to three family groups with nearly 30 individuals in a pack. Serious fights can break out among rival packs. Meerkats guard one another, with one member of the group (called a sentry) on the lookout for danger. Sentry duty will be rotated among different members of the pack.

STATUS IN THE WILD / CONSERVATION EFFORTS

They are both predator and prey. Eagles and jackals are their primary predators.

LIFE SPAN

Slender-tailed meerkats can live between 5-15 years in the wild and 10-15 years in captivity.