Meerkats

This article was originally posted at Meerkats
The meerkat (Suricata suricatta) is a small carnivoran belonging to the mongoose family (Herpestidae). It is the only member of the genus Suricata. 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. A group of meerkats is called a "mob", "gang" or "clan".

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Hunchbacked shrimp

Image
This article was originally posted at Amazing Zoology . View original article at http://amzoo.in/w2bzo © Copyright Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences Among the newely discovered 26 species of amphipods of genus Ephimera from Southern Ocean off Antarctica, one species stood out for its humped back. It was named Epimeria quasimodo and is about 2 inches long. It was named for Victor Hugo’s character, Quasimodo the hunchback, in reference to its somewhat humped back. Extraordinary morphological structures and colors, makes the genus Epimeria an icon of the Southern Ocean that includes both free-swimming predators and sessile filter feeders. The genus is abundant in the glacial waters circulating south of the Polar Front and their crested adornments are reminiscent of mythological dragons. Suggested Reading 1. D’Udekem d’Acoz C, Verheye ML. Epimeria of the Southern Ocean with notes on their relatives (Crustacea, Amphipoda, Eusiroidea). E . 2017;(359). doi: 10...
Read more

Stingrays can chew their food, like mammals

Image
This article was originally posted at Stingrays can chew their food, like mammals [toc] Is chewing a unique mammalian feature? Unlike mammals, other animals usually don’t have the ability to chew their food. Chewing can be defined as the interaction of upper and lower teeth by compressing and shearing food in between. And the peculiarity of mammalian chewing is the opposable motion of upper and lower jaw. Chewing is a very recent evolutionary adaptation. There are a few animals along with mammals to do that. Chewing is estimated to have evolved some 60-70 million years during the diversification of mammals. Some scientists even believed chewing one of the key innovations that allowed mammals to flourish, by dining well on insects, grasses, and other abundant sources of food. Now, recent findings using high speed videography has given scientific evidence to show that chewing is not just a mammalian adaptation. Recent study [1]  reveals that ocellate river stingray ( Potam...
Read more

Dolphins talk to each other, recorded first time in history!

Image
This article was originally posted at Amazing Zoology For the first time in history, scientists have recorded a full-fledged conversation between two bottlenose dolphins. It was known for years that dolphins use very complex language to communicate each other. But it is the first time we get clear evidence to say they are stringing together words to create sentences and even have grammar, a recent study [1]  says. What was the experiment? Signals produced by dolphins are classified into five different types. Of these, ‘mutually noncoherent pulses’ or ‘NPs’ were considered for the current study. The experiments were performed on two adult Black Sea bottlenose dolphins (Tursіps truncatus), named Yasha (male) and Yana (female), in a closed concrete pool. The speech patterns were recorded using waterproof Hydrophones places in the pool. The recordings of these dolphins were saved and analysed using various techniques. [caption id="attachment_883" align="al...
Read more