Diet and foraging behaviour of group-living meerkats, Suricata suricatta, in the southern Kalahari

摘要: Slender-tailed meerkats (Suricata suricatta) are small, diurnal, and gregarious mongooses which inhabit the semi-arid regions of southern Africa. In south-western Kalahari, substantial fluctuations in productivity caused by extreme seasonality rainfall temperatures. We observed foraging behaviour habituated from January to July, a period covering entire birth season stages high low prey availability. Insects were most frequently occurring class (78.1%), larvae (33.4% total frequency) adult Coleoptera (27.5% important items throughout year. Reptiles heavily utilized terms bulk-an index volume-(19.9%), but not frequency (9.2%). Consumption was positively correlated with rainfall, negatively temperature. Meerkats used mean 6.7 ± 1.1 categories daily, there significant monthly differences diversity diet. Dietary shifts apparently related availability presence preferred prey. There no between sexes dietary or niche breadth, pregnant lactating females foraged at significantly higher rates than males. The timing activity altered over months response changes daylength thermoregulatory constraints. Foraging effort described, implications an insect base for meerkat socioecology discussed.