Fossil Record
(Photograph by R. Huber)
- Fossil S. suricatta have been recorded from the cave of Hearths in the Transvaal (Mason, 1962) and from the Quarternary limestone quarries at Hoedjiesbaai near Saldanha (Cooke, 1955).
- S. major resembles modern S. suricatta in morphology of the tympanic region, relative development of inflated parts of the bulla and the nature of transverse slot of ecotympanic. Also have larger upper cheekteeth (Hendey, 1974).
Form and Function
Behavior
- Meerkats are small burrowing animals, living in large underground networks with multiple entrances which they leave only during the day. They are very social, living in colonies averaging 20–30 members
- The daily activity cycle of suricates is controlled largely by soil temperature and they are almost entirely diurnal.
- Daily activity is initiated when one individual drops to all fours, begin moving about, and is followed by the rest of the pack .
- Foraging behavior is typical of social mangooses, in which animals spread out and forage individually while maintaining visual and vocal contact.
- Anal-drag, leg –lift, body-rub and sniffing behaviors may mediate olfactory communication in suricates, using anal-gland secretions, urine, and communal latrines.
- Sexual activitiy usually began with about of semi-serious fighting,when one gripped its partner firmly by the muzzle.
Reproduksi and Ontogeni
- In captive animals, mating or parturition have been recorded in all months of the year except April (Brand, 1963; Ewer, 1963 b; Zuckerman, 1953).
- In the wild, births occurred during the warm, wet seasons (August through November, January, and March ), with no evident peak (n = 12 females-Lynch, 1980).
- Captive suricates under controlled temperature regimes gave birth to 11 litters in 31 months, leading Lynch (1980) to speculate that the lengthy active reproductive period may be due to the buffering effect of the burrow microenvironment against external climatic extremes.
- Thirty-four percent (n = 32) of reproductively active S. suricatta females examined in the wild were found to have two estrus cycles per season, but there was no indication that more than a single litter per year was produced (Lynch, 1980).
- Most fecundity losses in suricates occur prenatally up to the embryo/fetus stage.
- The gestation period is approximately 11 weeks, during which the teats increase in size and prominence, particularly in the last month (Ewer, 1963a), but there is no correlation between mammary gland size and stage of fetal development (Lynch, 1980).
- Sexual maturity is attained by 1 year of age (Grzimek, 1990).
- Body condition appears to be influenced by reproductive activity and diet
- Breeding in make suricates is not synchronized and there is no seasonal reproductive periodicity (Lynch, 1980).
- The apparent breeding cycle seems to be regulated by the cycle of the females
- Numbers of spermatozoa in testes and epididymides increase in March/April/ and July/ August, respectively, reaching a maximum in September/ October.
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