The Social Ranking of Meerkats | Magic of Disney's Animal Kingdom
On a sunny morning at Disney's Animal Kingdom theme park, the meerkats come outside to catch some rays. They like to lay in the sun. Some people call them solar powered, so they sit like this with their little bellies up to the sky. You'll see them kind of sitting in the sun, taking it in, especially early in the morning on those cooler mornings, or if it's been kind of raining.
There's so much I love about working with the meerkats. I try not to pick favorites. I love all the meerkats very much, and they all are very special.
"Hi, buddy. You are so cute. I know. I love you. Can't favor you on camera. That's just embarrassing."
These Southern African desert dudes love their creepy crawly snacks. So today I'm feeding the meerkats, super worms and mealworms. And they definitely love those super worms as their favorite snack.
I've been working with them for a really long time. That means that I've been able to learn all their individual quirks and personalities, and so I can sort of tell them apart by what they're doing.
"Thomas. Arlo. Springsteen. Bentley. Nirvana. Newt."
At this moment in time, I would say that Newton is probably our dominant animal. Which is surprising to me because he's one of our youngest animals. Being the dominant male matters in the meerkat market. Your job is kind of determined in some ways by your social ranking within the group.
So in a typical group, there would be a dominant female who selects the dominant male and they breed, and then the other members of the mob are responsible for raising the offspring, finding food, taking sentry duty, which means lookout to keep everybody safe. All of that kind of stuff falls on the other members of the group.
"Bentley’s in the back."
They're scanning the sky and the surrounding area to make sure there are no threats that are imminent, that everybody needs to be aware of. Bentley is a really fun guy. He is very chill. I would say he's really calm and easygoing for the most part.
"Oh, so that was an alarm call."
Looks like he might have seen something in the sky that I cannot see. They have a specific vocalization for a sky predator versus land predator. Something happened.
"We're all seeking shelter."
"Oh. We're scared of the zebra. Those are our neighbors. You all know the zebra."
We're all underground. When the coast is clear, lower ranking Bentley comes out with some attitude. Bentley is definitely not in charge when it comes to our meerkat social rankings. But sometimes he likes to try it out and see how high he can get and test the waters.
"But there's something brewing potentially."