What Meerkats Eat & How They Find Their Food

Meerkats are primarily insectivores, eating worms, crickets, grasshoppers, scorpions and ant larvae as main dietary sources. They will also occasionally indulge in a meal of small rodents, reptiles, snakes or birds--but only when food is plentiful and several meerkats can join in on the kill. Meerkats forage in the same area, but they eat alone since the portions of their meal only amount to enough food for one animal. They will usually search for food within 6-45 feet  of another meerkat so as to not invade one another's space. The amount of distance they leave depends on how plentiful the food source is in that area. If it is sparse, they have to spread out more to find enough food for everyone to consume.

As I said in the last post, meerkats live in a community and this is true even when foraging. The clan sends one of its members to be the  "sentry"--or lookout. This is usually the meerkat that is best fed at the time and this duty (lasting about an hour at a time) cycles through members of the clan, with both male and female adult meerkats taking over the post. The sentry is in charge of looking for potential danger while the others forage for food. If trouble is sensed, the lookout will whistle or bark an alarm to alert the members of the danger coming. The clan then bands together in what is called a mob--the term for a clan of meerkats in fighting mode--and gets ready to fend off any attackers.

                                           A meerkat on sentry duty for the clan.

Since the act of foraging does hold potential for danger, pups are left in the den with several meerkats who are on babysitting duty. Some of the meerkats who are out foraging are in charge of collecting enough food to bring back for its members who are in the den. The young pups are slowly allowed to shadow their parents on foraging trips and learn how to forage on their own as they get older. The most important trick the pups are taught is how to take the stinger off of scorpions--one of the most popular and plentiful meals for meerkats.

                         A mother teaching its young pup how to properly eat a scorpion.

Meerkats often have to search far underground for their food, since insects burrow for shade and moisture. Their front claws are curved, which allows them to dig very deep, very quickly. In the summer when insects are especially far underground, a meerkat might have to dig its own body weight just to find a meal! Being immune to several insect poisons allows meerkats to eat a variety of insects that are inedible to many other animals. Meerkats drag a poisonous insect--such as a scorpion or millipede--around in the dirt to get rid of the poisonous chemicals secreted. They then quickly bite off the stinger and eat the rest of the body for nutrients. Since other animals in their environment cannot eat poisonous insects so easily, the meerkat usually has a lush supply of scorpions and other poisonous insects to feed their appetite.

                                   Meerkats foraging at the Adelaide Zoo in Australia.

Since meerkats do not have body fat stores, they must forage daily in order to survive. They do not reserve fat or nutrients to last them, they must constantly find food to fill them up. This is usually not difficult since the staple of their diet--insects--are often plentiful and easy to find. Interestingly, meerkats do not need a constant water source, as they get plenty of liquid from the insects they ingest. If a water hole is near they will most definitely take a drink, but their day to day water consumption is done through the eating of the insects and small reptiles they find while digging.


Resources:
http://www.meerkats.net/info.htm#Meerkat cuisine
http://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/life/zoology/mammals/meerkats1.htm
http://www.kalahari-meerkats.com/index.php?id=faq_meerkat_bio#c628