Cape Town - It was just after 7am on a winter morning. The surrounding mountains drew their cloak of snow closer around their shoulders, as a sneaky wind stalked the veld. Surely the meerkats would be more sensible than me, and remain snug in their burrow? Was this going to prove an abortive visit?
Still, hope springs eternal, so here I was with Devey Glinister (he prefers DV), the guide for Meerkat Adventures, which specialises in showing tourists wild meerkats. Mugs of fortifying coffee in hand, we picked our way through the Karoo shrub.
“There are the first two sentries,” said Devey, pointing to some open land, scuffed by small mounds of sand. Sure enough, two little heads popped up. Then they stood on their hind legs and surveyed the skies.
My inclination was to rush over, before they disappeared back into their burrow, but Devey was much more relaxed. “Slow down. They are not going to go away,” he admonished.
“It's okay, guys,” he crooned, as the two meerkats looked a little nervous. Then, as we set up our camp stools nearby, they paid us a little more attention. Not long after, more and more curious heads appeared out of the burrow, until all 10 inhabitants of the colony were visible.
Devey explained that a group of meerkats is called either a mob or a gang, because they cluster together to deal with any threat.
As they bobbed up and down like so many Jack-in-the-boxes, warming themselves, and chittered excitedly, he told me more about the functioning of the colony.
While I felt we had been exceptionally lucky to be graced by their presence in such a weak sun, I learned that the little creatures emerge even on a dull day. “It’s only when it rains, that they don’t come out,” explained Devey.
If there’s no sun to warm their belly and chest (the meerkat’s radiator) they hug each other, clustering together to share their warmth. There was no hugging going on this morning… but plenty of balancing on hind legs, stretching and posing, paws tucked neatly together. Their dark eyes made them look a bit like masked bandits.
One by one Devey pointed out the different members of the mob. He explained that the dominant female is the only one who is allowed to breed.
In August, November and January she will give birth. There are 75 days between each batch of babies being born and they emerge from the burrow four weeks after birth.
He told me it takes about half-an-hour for everyone to warm up, then they go foraging. A babysitter or two is left behind to guard the burrow, as Mum, the dominant female, does not perform this duty.
Every so often, the nanny will probably pop down inside to keep the babies warm. Where they lie curled, some 3m beneath the ground, though, the temperature remains stable. Because the whole family sleep in the chamber, which doubles as a nursery, the temperature warms to a comfortable 30ºC or so.
Life in the wild is never easy and, according to Devey, the survival rate for baby meerkats is around 40 percent. Youngsters from this colony have fallen prey to grey mongoose, yellow-tailed mongoose, and a cobra. Devey told how on one occasion the babysitter had started crying. The whole gang rushed back from where they were foraging, and the dominant female dived down into the burrow. She emerged with just one baby alive. “That’s why we call him Number 1,” he said.
Talking about how they communicate, Devey said the meerkats make a sort of barking sound when indicating the presence of land-based predators, and a squeal for predators on the wing. They can hear the sentry sounding the alarm up to a distance of 80m. These calls are very low frequency, and mostly undetected by humans.
While feeding, they rotate as sentries throughout the day, each usually doing a stint of 10-15 minutes at a time.
The meerkats forage within a range of about 500m from the burrow and will return every four to five hours to check that the babies are okay and feed them. At this time the babysitters are relieved of their duties and get a chance to forage for themselves.
When meerkats become sexually mature, they move away to start their own colony. Usually the female gets lured away by a young male – who will have been kicked out by the dominant male as soon as he posed a sexual threat. This youngster will remain a nomad until it wants to lure a mate. Then it scent-marks its chosen female, so the family kicks her out, and he can claim her as his own.
By now the meerkats had all warmed up sufficiently. Suddenly they scurried away, disappearing into the shrub within seconds. Only the faithful babysitter remained alert and vigilant.
The show was over and it was time to head home. - Sunday Tribune
l Meerkat Adventures are based in Oudtshoorn and operate on the De Zeekoe Reserve. Bookings are essential.
Contact 084 772 9678; e-mail: [email protected]; website www.meerkatadventures.co.za