Traveller's Inn where I stay in Rustenburg has a meerkat or suricate as mascot. Our resident meerkat, Travis, was brutally murdered on sunday morning after someone left the gate open and he went walkabout in the neighbourhood. He was like a child in the house and is sorely missed.
I will be updating the Traveller's Inn website soon and will let you know when its done. If youb are looking for a place to stay in Rustenburg that is like home away from home, a comfy stay, this is a good place to be. Close to Sun City, Dikhololo, Pilanesberg and the Royal Bafokeng Stadium. About an hour and a half away from Pretoria and Johannesburg.
See below for more info about the meerkat or suricate.
The fulll name for this little mongooselike mammal is Suricata suricatta, The suricata is called stokstaartje = "little stick-tail" in Dutch. It uses the tail to signal and to balance when standing upright. Meerkat live in most areas in South Africa, some places in the Kalahari Desert in Botswana, areas of the Namib Desert in Namibia, and southwestern Angola.
A group of meerkat is called a "mob", "gang" or "clan". A suricate clan can have as many as 50 members. Its life span is about 12–14 years in captivity and about half this in the wild.
The small black crescent-shaped ears can close to exclude soil when digging. Like cats, suricate have binocular vision, a large peripheral range, depth perception, and eyes on the front of their faces. The eyes have a special lid that closes over it so that they can look directly into the sun and have black patches around them.
The meerkat's "fingers" have non-retractable claws which they use for digging burrows and for prey. They can even climb trees. The coat is as unique as our fingerprints; usually fawn-colored peppered with brown, gray or tan, with a silver tint. Parallel stripes extend from the base of the tail to the shoulders.
The meerkat has a bald patch on its stomach. It uses this area to absorb heat while standing on its hind legs.
The meerkat has a bald patch on its stomach. It uses this area to absorb heat while standing on its hind legs.
Suricate eat predominantly insects and grubs, but also eat lizards, snakes, scorpions, spiders, plants, eggs, small mammals, centipedes, millipedes and even small birds.They have no excess body fat stores, so daily foraging for food is essential. Meerkat are immune to certain types of venom.
Meerkats forage in a group with one "sentry" on guard watching for predators while the others search for food. The suricate sentry makes constant peeping sounds when all is well, but barks or whistles when there is danger. In addition to alarm calls, suricate also make panic calls, recruitment calls, and moving calls.
Meerkats have been known to engage in social activities, including what appears to be wrestling matches and foot races. They are fiercely territorial, will kill offending offspring, but sometimes share their burrows with yellow mongoose or ground squirrel who do not compete for the same resources.
See wikipedia for more about the meerkat
See wikipedia for more about the meerkat
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