New Arrivals: Meerkat Mob

A new meerkat mob has entered the building! Regenstein African Journey, that is. Lincoln Park Zoo is pleased to announce that another group of slender-tailed meerkats can now be seen at the zoo.

The group consists of three female meerkats from one litter, born at Madison, Wisconsin’s Henry Vilas Zoo. Their names are Clover, Violet, and Dahlia—perfect for springtime. The sisters in this “flower power” mob are still juveniles at about 1.5 years old.

The transfer of this meerkat mob to Chicago is the result of a recommendation by the meerkat Species Survival Plan®, which is a collaborative population management effort among member institutions within the Association of Zoos and Aquariums.

Lincoln Park Zoo is also home to another meerkat mob, which includes four individuals—three females and a male. Because these small mammals live in matriarchial societies, they will continue to be their own mobs with already-established social structures. You can distinguish the newly arrived group by their habitat location right in front of the indoor giraffe habitat. Clover, Violet, and Dahlia also have pink noses and a more fox-like appearance to their faces.

Along with their gregarious nature, meerkats are also known for their tenacity while hunting. They are related to mongooses, so some believe them to be immune to snakebites and scorpion stings, although this is only selectively true. They have powerful foreclaws for digging and a pointed snout for retrieving prey from narrow crevices.

Listen for their vocalizations—they have more than 10 different kinds, ranging from growls and clucks to their shrill alarm bark. Meerkats are a southern African species of Least Concern, according to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature.

Meerkat groups are known for always having one member on sentinel duty—a meerkat who stands on its hind legs and watches out for predators while the others forage. As the mobs at Lincoln Park Zoo will live in habitats that are within view of one another, “it should be interesting to see how they react to each others’ mobs,” Curator of Large Mammals and Carnivores Cassy Kutilek notes. “Their social nature and cooperation with one another is a great lesson for all.”

Watch this video of the meerkats making themselves at home in their new habitat: