### animal | vertebrate | mammal:

Meerkat
* Most meerkats adapt to conditions
  - carry rabies
  - consume food
  - deliver pups
* Most meerkats eat insects
  - roots
* Most meerkats have bones
  - ear bones
  - eyesights
* Most meerkats have long tails
  - thin tails
  - membranes
  - middle ear bones
  - patterns
  - paws
  - sharp eyesights
  - stripe patterns
  - toes
  - unique patterns
  - vision
  - kill small vertebrates
* Most meerkats live in burrows
  - environments
  - groups
  - societies
  - underground burrows
* Most meerkats stand on hind legs
* Some meerkats appear in films
  - belong to families
  - drag poisonous prey
  - eat meat
* Some meerkats have bilateral symmetry
  - habits
  - poisonous barbs
  - social habits
  - kill offspring
  - live in mobs
  - reach maturity
  - remove sand
  - survive in deserts
* also feast on small snakes
  - have ears that can open and close
  - love to eat poisonous scorpions which are plentiful
  - work together when they are hunting small prey
* are active and highly gregarious
  - at night
  - during the day and enjoy basking in the sun
* are active in the day and night
  - also viviparous which means the embryo develops in the mother
  - catlike carnivores that are part of the civets and mongoose family
  - co-operative breeding animals and have a complex social system
  - common throughout their range
  - dioecious meaning that they have separate sexes
  - diurnal and spend most of their active time foraging, basking in the sun, and grooming
  - diurnal, meaning they are awake during the day, and sleep at night
  - extremely social mammals, living in the wild in the Kalahari desert of Africa
  - found in southern Africa, including South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe and Mozambique
  - good hunters and are sometimes tamed for use as rodent-catchers
  - gregarious and have at least ten distinctive vocalizations
  - illegal to own without the proper licenses and permits
  - mammals that are in the mongoose family
* are members of the cat family
  - raccoon family
  - rodent family
  - mongooses
* are one of the few predators in the world to attack with absolutely no warning signs
  - most cooperative species on the planet
  - part of the group of mammals known as carnivores, which means they eat mostly meat
  - perfect animals to be living in a desert
  - primarily insectivores preying on a variety of insects
  - sexually mature at about one year old
  - small animals and therefore like all small species, they have a high rate of predation
* are the brown furry animals found in the burrows of African desert
  - only species of the genus suricatta
* can have one to seven babies at one time.
* come from the mongoose family.
* demonstrate aggregation.
* do many activities as a group.
* eat grain, seeds and nuts
  - grasses, leaves and fruit
  - insects, small rodents, reptiles, birds, eggs and roots
* enjoy burrowing and digging tunnels.
* enter and exit their burrows through several scattered holes in the ground.
* feature long tails
* feed on insects, millipedes and spiders which they find mainly by smell
  - primarily on insects, but also eat lizards, eggs, rodents and scorpions
* find food
  - their food by digging with the shovel like claws they have
* forage for food.
* generally forage individually near the burrow, turning over stones and rooting in crevices
  - groom one another after returning from a day of foraging or before mating
* have a higher life expectancy when living in captivity than in the wild
  - an immunity to scorpions' stings
  - backbones
  - claws used for digging burrows and digging for prey
  - closable ears
  - design features
  - faces
  - light brown fur with a gray and brown tint to it with stripes on their back
  - long, tubular bodies covered by red, tan and grey fur
  - many different chirps that they use for different reasons
  - own unique patterns
  - powerful foreclaws for digging
  - same patterns
  - similar facial features to other members of the mongoose family
  - small black crescent-shaped ears that can close when digging to keep sand out
  - small, black ears, located on the sides of their heads
* includes brains
  - breasts
  - cell membranes
  - cells
  - chest cavities
  - chests
  - cytoplasm
  - nuclei
  - pedal extremities
  - piluses
  - plasma membranes
  - rib cages
  - sections
  - skulls
  - sterna
  - vacuoles
  - vertebrate feet
* inhabit all parts in the Kalahari Desert in Botswana and South Africa.
* live in Australia
  - Southern Africa,south if the Orange River
  - a group called a colony
  - cooperative social systems
  - grasslined burrows in the Kalahari Desert and parts of Southern Africa
  - groups, with a single dominant pair monopolizing reproduction
  - holes in the ground called burrows
  - large, multi-chambered underground dens, with numerous entrances
  - packs and have assigned tasks
  - the Sahara desert
  - inside underground burrows in the deserts of South Africa
  - together in big groups
* make good pets
  - poor pets
  - their homes in burrows in the plains and deserts of southern Africa
* mark their territory with the use of their anal gland or saliva from their cheek.
* mostly live in the Kalahari desert, unless, in captivity.
* perform different tasks to benefit the group and are fiercely territorial.
* reach adulthood at around one year of age
  - the age of one
* rely heavily on communication and a communal society to survive.
* search for food.
* spend a significant part of the day foraging for their food with their sensitive noses.
* typically disperse with one or more groupmates of the same sex.
* use their tails for balance when standing upright.
* work collectively to build and renovate their homes through excavation.
+ Meerkat, Having children
  * The meerkat is old enough to have children at one year. Meerkats can have one to seven babies at one time. Four is the most common. Meerkats can give birth at any time of the year but like to give birth in spring and summer because there is more food. Female meerkats can have up to three litters in one year. When the babies are born they are pink and have no hair. Their eyes and ears are closed
  - How meerkats act: Feliformia
  * Meerkats live in holes in the ground called burrows. They are active during the day, and they also live in large family groups. The group is led by a female and a male. The meerkats are often all family. Sometimes if a minor member is in trouble with the leader it will groom the leader to try and calm them down.
  * Meerkats have many different chirps that they use for different reasons. They have a different chirp for being friends, anger, and for warning of an animal that will eat them
  - The meerkat body
  * Meerkats also have ears that can open and close. They close in order to keep sand out when they are burrowing