A Meerkat Diary: My Journey into the Wild World of a Meerkat Mob

A Meerkat Diary: My Journey into the Wild World of a Meerkat Mob — page 5
FEBRUARY 3 Today we met our meerkat mob It always seems funny to call such cute little animals a mob but that’s the word for a meerkat community Before dawn Motto and Villa drove us to the meerkats location We quietly approached a large hole in the ground This was the burrow where the meerkats live We lay down in the grass on our bellies so we looked small and not scary to the meerkats Meerkat mobs have a female leader called a matriarch This mob’s matriarch Maghogho was the first to appear She stuck her head out and looked around Then she came all the way out and stood up on her hind legs Villa explained that it gets very cold underground all night so Maghogho was warming up by exposing her nearly bare belly to the heat of the morning sun Standing on her back legs is also how she looks out for predators such as birds of prey or jackals Motto has been doing a great job of habituating the meerkats because even though Maghogho saw us she wasn’t afraid Instead she made some chirping sounds she was letting her family know it was safe to come out Becky and I had seen Maghogho in some documentary shows so we recognized her right away She must be one of the most famous meerkats in the world 8