The meerkat (Suricata suricatta) or suricate is a small mongoose found in southern Africa. It is characterised by a broad head, large eyes, a pointed snout, long legs, a thin tapering tail, and a brindled coat pattern. The head-and-body length is around 24–35 cm (9.4–13.8 in), and the weight is typically between 0.62 and 0.97 kg (1.4 and 2.1 lb). The coat is light grey to yellowish-brown with alternate, poorly-defined light and dark bands on the back. Meerkats have foreclaws adapted for digging and have the ability to thermoregulate to survive in their harsh, dry habitat. Three subspecies are recognised.

Meerkats are highly social, and form packs of two to 30 individuals each that occupy home ranges around 5 km2 (1.9 sq mi) in area. There is a social hierarchy—generally dominant individuals in a pack breed and produce offspring, and the nonbreeding, subordinate members provide altruistic care to the pups. Breeding occurs around the year, with peaks during heavy rainfall; after a gestation of 60 to 70 days, a litter of three to seven pups is born.

They live in rock crevices in stony, often calcareous areas, and in large burrow systems in plains. The burrow systems, typically 5 m (16 ft) in diameter with around 15 openings, are large underground networks consisting of two to three levels of tunnels. These tunnels are around 7.5 cm (3.0 in) high at the top and wider below, and extend up to 1.5 m (4 ft 11 in) into the ground. Burrows have moderated internal temperatures and provide a comfortable microclimate that protects meerkats in harsh weather and at extreme temperatures.

Meerkats are active during the day, mostly in the early morning and late afternoon; they remain continually alert and retreat to burrows when sensing danger. They use a broad variety of calls to communicate among one another for different purposes, for example to raise an alarm on sighting a predator. Primarily insectivorous, meerkats feed heavily on beetles and lepidopterans, arthropods, amphibians, small birds, reptiles, and plant material in their diet.

Commonly living in arid, open habitats with little woody vegetation, meerkats occur in southwestern Botswana, western and southern Namibia, northern and western South Africa; the range barely extends into southwestern Angola. With no significant threats to the population, the meerkat is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List. Meerkats are widely depicted in television, movies and other media.

The word 'meerkat' derives from the Dutch name for a kind of monkey, which in turn comes from the Old High German mericazza, possibly as a combination of meer ('lake') and kat ('cat'). This may be related to the similar Hindi: मर्कट (markat, or monkey), deriving from Sanskrit, though the Germanic origin of the word predates any known connections to India. The name was used for small mammals in South Africa from 1801 onward, possibly because the Dutch colonialists used the name in reference to many burrowing animals. The native South African name for the meerkat is 'suricate', possibly deriving from the French: surikate, which in turn may have a Dutch origin. In Afrikaans the meerkat is called graatjiemeerkat or stokstertmeerkat; the term mierkatte or meerkatte can refer to both the meerkat and the yellow mongoose (Afrikaans: rooimeerkat). In colloquial Afrikaans mier means 'ant' and kat means 'cat', hence the name probably refers to the meerkat's association with termite mounds.

In 1776, Johann Christian Daniel von Schreber described a meerkat from the Cape of Good Hope, giving it the scientific name Viverra suricatta. The generic name Suricata was proposed by Anselme Gaëtan Desmarest in 1804, who also described a zoological specimen from the Cape of Good Hope. The present scientific name Suricata suricatta was first used by Oldfield Thomas and Harold Schwann in 1905 when they described a specimen collected at Wakkerstroom. They suggested there were four local meerkat races in the Cape and Deelfontein, Grahamstown, Orange River Colony and southern Transvaal, and Klipfontein respectively. Several zoological specimens were described between the late 18th and 20th centuries, of which three are recognised as valid subspecies:

• S. s. suricatta (Schreber, 1776) occurs in southern Namibia, southern Botswana, and South Africa.

• S. s. majoriae Bradfield, 1936 occurs in central and northwestern Namibia.

• S. s. iona Crawford-Cabral, 1971 occurs in southwestern Angola.Kalahar

  
  

  
  

Kalahari Meerkat (Suricata suricatta majoriae) Kgalagadi National Park South Africa

Meerkat (Suricata suricatta suricatta) Maghadighadi Salt Pans Botswana