Meerkat

Description:

The lookout. The second of three meerkats I photographed onthis zoo trip (see #1 at http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/274...) The meerkat or suricate, Suricata suricatta, is a small mammal belonging to the mongoose family. 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.

Habitat:

Cleveland Metroparks Zoo. In the wild, 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.