Meerkat: Clues from Nature

Question 1 · multiple choice

Choose the habitat that best matches the everyday needs of a Meerkat.

warm coastal seas, seamounts, and deep offshore water woodland edges, fields, and moist ground under stones dry scrub and desert-edge plains with diggable soil woodland, parks, orchards, and mature gardens

Question 2 · multiple choice

A scientist analyses food remains from a Meerkat. Which result is most likely?

mainly jellyfish and other soft drifting animals small crustaceans, insects, worms, and algae nectar and pollen collected from flowers insects, scorpions, small reptiles, eggs, and bulbs

Question 3 · multiple choice

Which time-use clue would fit a Meerkat rather than the other choices?

forages mainly by day after warming in the morning sun forages slowly at any time depending on tide and food often rebuilds and hunts from dusk through night hunts mainly by day

Question 4 · multiple choice

Which movement pattern makes sense for the body design of a Meerkat?

moves using hundreds of water-powered tube feet runs between burrows and stands upright to scan the horizon walks on web threads and descends on silk walks long distances and stamps prey with rapid powerful kicks

Question 5 · multiple choice

What specialised feature helps a Meerkat solve an everyday survival problem?

tails interfere with bat echolocation and can draw attacks away from the body a large casque may amplify calls and strengthen the bill without being solid dark eye patches reduce glare while sharp claws excavate prey and tunnels external gills and a finned tail allow lifelong aquatic breathing and movement

Question 6 · multiple choice

A field diary describes the early life of a Meerkat. Which entry is correct?

eggs hatch at intervals so chicks in one nest differ in size gives birth to live young rather than laying eggs a female guards tens of thousands of eggs and stops feeding until they hatch pups are born in a protected underground chamber

Question 7 · multiple choice

Which relationship pattern is normal for a Meerkat?

groups share babysitting, teaching, sentry, and feeding duties lives in a size-ranked group within one anemone gathers in large seasonal spawning groups mostly solitary at microscopic scale

Question 8 · multiple choice

Which ecosystem job can be connected to a Meerkat?

controls jellyfish and transports nutrients across ocean basins turns soil while searching for prey and influences insect numbers links mudflat prey with birds and aquatic predators pollinates wild plants and many food crops

Question 9 · multiple choice

What protection strategy best matches a Meerkat's body and behaviour?

uses schooling, speed, and sensory awareness fires a hot pulsed chemical spray aimed from the abdomen gives different alarm calls for threats from air and ground retreats around the trunk and uses loud calls and drumming

Question 10 · true false

True or False: A meerkat youngsters learn to handle dangerous scorpions through staged lessons from adults.

True False