AnAge entry for Suricata suricatta
Classification (HAGRID: 02157)
- Taxonomy
-
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia (Taxon entry)
Order: Carnivora
Family: Herpestidae
Genus: Suricata
- Species
- Suricata suricatta
- Common name
- Meerkat
Lifespan, ageing, and relevant traits
- Maximum longevity
- 20.6 years (captivity)
- Source
- ref. 671
- Sample size
- Large
- Data quality
- High
- Observations
In the wild these animals are estimated to live up to 15 years [0560]. In captivity, one specimen was 20.6 years of age when it died [0434].
These animals live in groups of up to 50 individuals in the wild. Each group has a single dominant male and female, that lives longer than their subordinates. This is because subordinates spend more time away from the group in excursions than dominants, which increase their mortality risk. The frequency of these extra-group excursions also seems to rise with age. Curiously, dominant animals have a faster attrition of the telomeres, when compared with subordinate animals [1372].
Life history traits (averages)
- Female sexual maturity
- 365 days
- Male sexual maturity
- 365 days
- Gestation
- 77 days
- Weaning
- Litter size
- 4 (viviparous)
- Litters per year
- 1
- Inter-litter interval
- 365 days
- Weight at birth
- 29 g
- Weight at weaning
- Adult weight
- 776 g
- Postnatal growth rate
- 0.0161 days-1 (from Gompertz function)
- Maximum longevity residual
- 152%
Metabolism
- Typical body temperature
- 309ºK or 36.3ºC or 97.3ºF
- Basal metabolic rate
- 1.7290 W
- Body mass
- 850.0 g
- Metabolic rate per body mass
- 0.002034 W/g
References
- [1372] Cram et al. (2018), Rank-Related Contrasts in Longevity Arise from Extra-Group Excursions Not Delayed Senescence in a Cooperative Mammal (PubMed)
- [1143] Nussey et al. (2013), Senescence in natural populations of animals: widespread evidence and its implications for bio-gerontology (PubMed)
- [0671] Richard Weigl (2005), Longevity of Mammals in Captivity; from the Living Collections of the World
- [0036] Savage et al. (2004), The predominance of quarter-power scaling in biology
- [0420] White and Seymour (2003), Mammalian basal metabolic rate is proportional to body mass2/3 (PubMed)
- [0610] Ernest (2003), Life history characteristics of placental non-volant mammals
- [0434] Ronald Nowak (1999), Walker's Mammals of the World
- [0560] van Staaden (1994), Suricata suricatta
- [0455] Virginia Hayssen et al. (1993), Asdell's Patterns of Mammalian Reproduction: A Compendium of Species-Specific Data
- [0680] Wootton (1987), The effects of body mass, phylogeny, habitat, and trophic level on mammalian age at first reproduction
- [0731] Zullinger et al. (1984), Fitting sigmoid equations to mammalian growth curves
External Resources
- Integrated Taxonomic Information System
- ITIS 621906
- Animal Diversity Web
- ADW account
- Encyclopaedia of Life
- Search EOL
- NCBI Taxonomy
- Taxonomy ID 37032
- Entrez
- Search all databases
- Ageing Literature
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- Images
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- Internet
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