h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: Meerkats - A9495615
Author: Galaxy Babe - Scout/ACE - U128652

Cutest animal on the planet IMHO.

Make sure you check out the pictures and the webcam...

Submitted 8 May

GB

Yep, they're cute alright, and comical

Not read it yet, just bookmaking so I remember to read it tomorrow.

Emmily

That webcam seems to be frozen

Hopefully it'll be back up soon, I did look earlier, when it was working, but wasn't lucky enough to see any meerkats.

No commments to make, other than - interesting read Annie

Emmily

This is a good read. Very enjoyable.

The link explaining who Timon is appears to be broken, though.

I've changed the webcam link and also the Timon link

Hi, Galaxy Babe. I think meerkats are cute too!

The first sentence is a bit out of place. It's a nice title, but I think it would be better removed.

Calling meerkats "South African" suggests that they are from the Republic of South Africa, particularly since you link to an entry about that republic, but as you point out, they are from the Kalahari Desert, which is not in South Africa. Perhaps you could say "Southern African meerkat".

In the Vital Statistics section, you should start by describing what a meerkat looks like rather than giving lengths and numbers of toes.

30cms --> 30cm

I don't see the point of including the word "diurnal" in brackets.

You start taking about the youngsters doing sentry duty before you've explained about sentry duty. You should change things around, so that the description of the adults comes first.

I don't think that the Kalahari is Savannah. It is semi-desert.

Are you sure about the Queen? In the Meerkats United documentary, they didn't say anything about one breeding female. They suggested that many meerkats would have babies, but that any female (or male) would mind the offspring of any other. I've also heard that Naked Mole Rats are the only mammals with a Queen.

showed David laid on the ground --> showed David lying on the ground

Is it 'The Life of Pi' or 'Life of Pi'? If it's 'The Life of Pi', the 'The' should be in the link. Otherwise it should be removed.

two catagories --> two categories

There was a sequel to The Lion King, called THe Lion King 3 in the UKm and The Lion King 1.5 in the US, which told the story of The Lion King from the point of view of Timon and Pumbaa., It had a lot more about Meerkats in it.

Thanks Gnomon

Updated, I've attended to all your points except: The Queen.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/science/naturaldespots.shtml

I called her "Queen" rather than a serial killer or "despot"

I have seen both Meerkats United and Meerkat Manor and I think the "United" programme was misleading.

I haven't added the Lion King 3, because I didn't know about it and have to research it, but I have to go out so will just update as it is for now.

P.S. My son has all the Timon and Pumbaa videos which are very funny but too numerous to mention in the entry

Love the entry GB... It may be worth expanding the warning sentrys 'bark' section here...

Meerkats have their own language, with a variety of 'alarm calls' signalling different predatory threats. Once spooked, a single bark from the sentinel can galvanize the whole gang into action, even moving the young to safety elsewhere if necessary.



If a Meerkat sentry spots an eagle his bark will tell the tribe he's spotted and eagle and the tribe will bolt for their burrows...This is useless if he spots a snake as they can follow the tribe down the burrow. His snake bark will instead tell the tribe to climb up high into trees and bushes were the snake cannot reach them!

http://www.oaklandzoo.org/atoz/azmeerkat.html

Updated, thanks

I have been searching for more information, Gnomon, and I found this at a Zoo website in Australia:

Taronga Zoo has ten Meerkats. At the head of all Meerkat families is the breeding pair. Unfortunately much-loved Namibia passed away a few years ago leaving dad Owambo to take care of his nine offspring. Keepers do not need to control the breeding of this group as meerkats are extremely family orientated and will not interbreed with other family members.
http://www.zoo.nsw.gov.au/content/view.asp?id=1061

Shall I keep looking for more info?

I think thats an interesting snippett to put in GB - about them being able to control other urges to prevent incest. Certainly thats something I didn't know, and is interesting.

I've added it to the "Life in the desert" section, and also put 'Queen' in single quotes.

Does 'Queen' need to be in quote marks in every instance, or just the header and first instance?

Just the first instance; I don't think it should be capitalised either.

First line - you don't need the word 'Latin'.

Good entry - I think meerkats are great.

I agree that Queen shouldn't be capitalised - for those of us who are used to only seeing the word capitalised for our head of state, it's a bit of a shock when we're told "If any of the other females breed, the Queen is likely to kill the offspring" and "In 2004 the Queen and the Alpha male produced a batch of pups"...!

Lbclaire

I'll attend to this when I've got the images out of my head...

Updated

Is it correct to say "The pups are born blind" when they just have their eyes closed (like kittens) - I'm not sure of the correct terminology here.