Meercat

Guest Reviewer: Sharon

Notable Mongoose Variations: Mongooses (mongeese? mongi?)
Habitat: Southern Africa/Kalahari, Grassland. Zoos.

First Impressions:

Fantastic. What can you say about an animal that resembles a cross between a small sloth and a big rat, squeeks like a crazy guinee pig and has a serious nervous disposition/nosey tendencies. Aside from that fabulousness, they also have 'closeable ears'....surely very handy in certain situations?!

They also have a great habit of looking up and then falling over - hours of amusement.

Go on. Fall over. Fall over backwards.
Fall over backwards right now.

Behaviour:

Average height of around 30cm (their tail is around 20cm and is used as a tripod to balance when standing). They weight around 2 lbs. But more amusingly they are (aparently - in certain circles) called the "Solar Panel Of The Animal World" - they use their bellies to absorb heat and warm up. Wow - genius.

They live for around 13 years and aparently the plural for a group of between 5 and 30 is known as a gang or mob. How true when you find out that they are very competitive and will defend their home from other meerkat mobs. Oooh its like street warfare - if you live in a council estate in the desert perhaps.

A terrifying Meerkat mob.

Due to their size (they are a tad 'bite-sized' for their main predators - eagles and jackals) so one will stand guard whilst the others have a nice kip and presumably a cuppa and a biccie. Older meerkats are also handy to have around if you need a babysitter - they tend to watch over a few of the younger ones.

Aparently they can eat scorpions as they are immune to their venom (handy) but also enjoy beetles, spiders, centipedes, millipedes, worms, crickets, birds and eggs.

Skills:

The aforementioned tripod tail appendage and handy babysitting tendencies.

Good Pet/Bad Pet:

Nothing short of stupendous.

Celebrity Owners:

Unknown - although if it was fashionable you could guarantee Britney and Paris would be right in there.

Verdict:

+ Great name and appearance
+ Incredibly good at doing really stupid things
+ Ability to use their bellies to harness heat
+ Use their tail like a tripod
+ Immune to scorpions

- Get a load together and its pretty loud with all that squeeking
- They tend to fall over a lot (funny for a while but might get a tad tiresome after say, 11 years)

Overall Meerkat Score: 7.2/10

Animal Reviews Independent Moderation Panel:

A fantastically comprehensive review there Sharon. You're clearly a fan, and you've drawn the world's attention to a number of important meercat features, such as their tail stabilisation technique and belly warming action.

Although we agree with many of your points, we would perhaps mention a couple of things:

• You mention that Meercats use their tummys to absorb heat and warm up. But surely being under the hot Kalahari sun all day should keep them more than warm enough. Thus, either the meercat has a bad circulation problem (design fault), or it's simply greedy (personality disorder) for extra heat that could be needed by cold blooded creatures such as the scorpion. Either way, we're going to dock a point there.
• We dispute their suitability as pets. As sweet as they are, they are also notorious diggers. Imagine the chaos that would ensue if they got into your dad's prize veg patch. He might never speak to you again. In this case, an otter would be a far safer bet, and it's precisely scenarios such as this that we must consider when assessing pet suitability.
• Celebrity Ownership. We have it on good authority that Prince once owned an entire roomful of meercats in his heyday. Sadly, only one now remains.

Animal Reviews Post Moderation Meercat Score: 6.6/10