The Ranks

[Ace]

Dominant Female - Usually the leader of a mob, there is no formal system to ascend to the position and often bitter fights break out among the subordinate females of the mob to determine the new dominant female. A dominant female remains dominant until she dies or disappears unless she is successfully usurped.

Dominant Male - This meerkat is almost always the mate of the dominant female; he usually is older and larger than the other males in the mob and typically originates from outside of the mob, as he would have to be at least somewhat unrelated to the dominant female. His main duties include chasing out rovers and providing pups to the dominant female, who in most circumstances is the only female allowed to breed in the mob.

Subordinates - Subordinate meerkats can be of any origin though usually are related to the dominant pair, whether they be siblings, cousins, children, nieces or nephews. They provide a variety of services for the mob, including pup-sitting for the dominant pair while the mob is foraging, sentinel duty to watch for predators and territory defense. Crimes that can prompt a subordinate's exile almost always are dissent and disruption of dominance, or as a subordinate female, bearing pups.

Nursing Mothers - Self-explanatory- the females of the mob with pups not yet old enough to preform subordinate duties. A dominant female can remain dominant while she has pups this age, and often calls upon other members of the mob to protect them while she forages for food. Most of the time, if a subordinate female has pups she is either exiled while she is still pregnant, she is abandoned at a burrow with her pups, or her pups are killed by the dominant female, depending on her personality - occasionally, however, the dominant female allows her to bear their pups in the mob, but this is a major strain on mob resources.

Pup - A pup remains a pup until they are three months of age, old enough to begin to learn how to preform the duties of subordinates - they are taught these by the entire mob. At the age of two to three weeks, they are old enough to join the mob on occasional foraging expeditions but not strong enough to fight or preform subordinate duties. A juvenile meerkat reaches maturity at the age of one year, but, as said, they become able members of the mob long before that.

Loners, Rovers, and Exiles - A loner is a generic term for a solitary meerkat, however, it also applies to a loner born meerkat who lives such a lifestyle by choice. A rover, on the other hand, is a typically male meerkat already belonging to a mob yet away from it for an unsuspecting period of time in search of territory and mates. An exile is a typically female meerkat, of course, exiled from their mob for various crimes by a dominant member or, rarely, by another subordinate.

Thanks to www.kalahari-meerkats.com/ for information - guide & text © Ace, please do not copy to other websites.