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Description
Afterwork: Cropped, bordered, sharpened.

Indianapolis Zoo - Indianapolis, Indiana

Meerkats are born with hair but not full coats and with their eyes closed. They will live in the wild up to 10 years. However, in captivity they can live to be 15 years of age. When they are adults at about one year of age they will weigh around 2 pounds (750 - 820 grams) and stand an average of 12 inches high (30 centimeters). When they are on all four of their feet their height is only 6 inches (15 centimeters).

Like all mongooses, they are agile hunters; however, they differ considerably from most of their other relatives. Unlike the typical mongoose of which there are around 35 types, Meerkats live in communities and depend on one another for survival. While most mongooses are nocturnal, Meerkats hunt during the day. They live at night in burrows, which are complex tunnel systems consisting of mounds, access holes, and tunnels which lead to numerous sleeping chambers.

A Meerkat community is called a mob or gang, and can number up to 40. There is always a dominate alpha male and dominate alpha female in each gang. The Meerkats larger mongoose relatives typically live alone or in pairs. These intelligent animals are extremely communicative and posses a large vocabulary. They flourish in their environment and are not endangered.

Our "mob" of meerkats includes two separate groups that have now come together. Working with the meerkat studbook keeper/population manager from the Santa Barbara Zoo, animals were identified for the Zoo to acquire. They received four males from the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo in Colorado Springs and five females from the Oakland Zoo in California. Because it was too cold to ship the meerkats by air (they arrived in Indianapolis during the winter months), They Desert's staff flew out to Oakland and Colorado Springs and drove the meerkats cross country to their new home. The girls (all sisters) range in age from two years to 5 ½ years old. The boys, who are all littermates, were born in 2004.

`lns

Description
Afterwork: Cropped, bordered, sharpened.

Indianapolis Zoo - Indianapolis, Indiana

Meerkats are born with hair but not full coats and with their eyes closed. They will live in the wild up to 10 years. However, in captivity they can live to be 15 years of age. When they are adults at about one year of age they will weigh around 2 pounds (750 - 820 grams) and stand an average of 12 inches high (30 centimeters). When they are on all four of their feet their height is only 6 inches (15 centimeters).

Like all mongooses, they are agile hunters; however, they differ considerably from most of their other relatives. Unlike the typical mongoose of which there are around 35 types, Meerkats live in communities and depend on one another for survival. While most mongooses are nocturnal, Meerkats hunt during the day. They live at night in burrows, which are complex tunnel systems consisting of mounds, access holes, and tunnels which lead to numerous sleeping chambers.

A Meerkat community is called a mob or gang, and can number up to 40. There is always a dominate alpha male and dominate alpha female in each gang. The Meerkats larger mongoose relatives typically live alone or in pairs. These intelligent animals are extremely communicative and posses a large vocabulary. They flourish in their environment and are not endangered.

Our "mob" of meerkats includes two separate groups that have now come together. Working with the meerkat studbook keeper/population manager from the Santa Barbara Zoo, animals were identified for the Zoo to acquire. They received four males from the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo in Colorado Springs and five females from the Oakland Zoo in California. Because it was too cold to ship the meerkats by air (they arrived in Indianapolis during the winter months), They Desert's staff flew out to Oakland and Colorado Springs and drove the meerkats cross country to their new home. The girls (all sisters) range in age from two years to 5 ½ years old. The boys, who are all littermates, were born in 2004.

`lns