Feeding through the ages : revisiting the diet of meerkats

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Authors

Jubber, Walter R.
Manser, Marta B.
Fuller, Andrea

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Publisher

Elsevier

Abstract

We investigated the diet and foraging behaviour of a social carnivore, the meerkat (Suricata suricatta), living in stochastic dryland, and examined seasonal, as well as age-related variation in diet. Insecta constituted the highest percentage of prey eaten (88.4%), followed by Arachnida (5.7%), Diplopoda (4.3%), and Reptilia (1.1%). Within Insecta, Coleoptera (70.4%) was the most dominant prey order in the diet, followed by Lepidoptera and Hymenoptera. There was seasonal variation in the diet of meerkats, with the three main Coleoptera families eaten year-round, but higher consumption of Coleoptera adults in the wet season than in the dry season. We found that old adult meerkats (>24 months) consumed the most large-sized prey, while sub-adults (6–10 months) had the highest prey count of small adult Carabidae beetles. Yearlings (15–24 months) ate the highest percentage of Hepialidae caterpillars. Whether the high representation of Coleoptera in the meerkat diet reflects dietary opportunism associated with the relatively high abundance of Coleoptera, or specialisation in the diet regardless of abundance, remains to be determined.

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DATA AVAILABILITY : The data that has been used is confidential.

Keywords

Meerkat (Suricata suricatta), Diet, Foraging behaviour, Insectivore, Kalahari, Dietary specialisation, SDG-15: Life on land

Sustainable Development Goals

SDG-15:Life on land

Citation

Jubber, W.R., Manser, Marta B. & Fuller, A. 2025, 'Feeding through the ages : revisiting the diet of meerkats', Journal of Arid Environments, vol. 227, art. 105331, pp. 1-11, doi : 10.1016/j.jaridenv.2025.105331.