Meerkat Musketeers!

Meerkat Musketeers!
“All for one, and one for all!” Meerkats live or die by this infamous Musketeer motto.
Teamwork makes it possible for each meerkat to live in the unforgiving desert. By working
together, they ensure each other’s survival.
Family Unit
• Meerkats live in a matriarchal society. That means there’s one
main Mama, and she’s the boss. She’s also the only female allowed
to have pups.
• Each meerkat plays a special role in the family unit, such as…
…babysitter to the pups
…food forager (the lucky one who gathers food)
…and sentry or guard for the rest of the family while they eat.
• Every meerkat in the family teaches the pups how to be meerkats.
This includes having an adventurous appetite. Go ahead, little
one—try the scorpion!
• Meerkats dig “bolt holes” throughout their feeding grounds for
emergencies. When a sentry sounds the alarm, they can, well, bolt
down the hole.
CALL OUT!
Meerkats use more than 30 recognizable calls to talk to each other. They can even tell each
other if a threat comes from air or from land. So if you hear a meerkat call out, it could mean:
RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!! EAGLE!
SNAKE!
meerkatsmovie.com
So full and
happy…
Time
to eat. Give me your food.
(says the pups to anyone listening)
One—ok, two—for the road…
• Meerkats have “solar panels” on their bellies. They soak up the sun by day and keep toasty
warm on cold desert nights.
• With all that sunbathing, meerkats could use sunglasses. The dark circles around their eyes
do the trick. They act as reflectors for sunlight. Cool shades!

Meerkat Recall
1. Meerkats live in a ___________ society.
2. One role in a meerkat family is ___________.
3. Every meerkat forages for ___________ and teaches the ______.
4. In case of emergency, a meerkat dives into a ______ ______.
5. Meerkats talk to each other using more than 30 ___________.
6. Meerkats can tell each other if a threat is in the _____or on _____.
7. Meerkats have ___________ ___________on their bellies.
8. Meerkats have built-in ___________.
Answers: 1. matriarchal 2. babysitter, sentry, forager 3. food, pups 4. bolt hole
5. calls 6. air, land 7. solar panels 8. sunglasses
Meerkat Haiku
Haiku is a form of Japanese poetry. It can paint a vivid picture
with just 17 syllables, on only three lines—and it doesn’t have to
rhyme! The first line has five syllables, the second line has seven,
and the last line has five. Check out the examples in the yellow
boxes at right, and write your own…
Meerkats!
Hungry Meerkats
A gang goes hunting.
A scorpion waves its tail.
Snap! A meerkat eats.
Call Out!
Meerkats, listen up!
There’s an eagle flying low.
Ok, safe to eat.
Across:
1. Meerkats need to work together as one
of these in order to survive.
3. A stand-in Mama meerkat.
4. Meerkats look down! A cobra is a threat
from where?
5. Mmmm, food! A meerkat looking for
food is a what?
6. Say What? Each one means
something different.
9. The sun is bright! Good thing meerkats
have these built in.
11. Sun soaks into this kind of panel to
keep a meerkat warm.
Down:
2. Meerkats live in a society where
Mama rules.
3. Danger! Hide here for safety.
7. A meerkat family teaches them well.
8. Watch out! This meerkat has an
important job.
10. Meerkats look up! An eagle is a threat
from where?
3
4
11
1 2
5
6 7
8
9 10
Answers: Across: 1. team 3. babysitter 4. land 5. forager 6. call 9. sunglasses
11. solar Down: 2. matriarchal 3. bolthole 7. pups 8. sentry 10. air
Copyright © 2012 National Geographic Society