Meerkat

Meerkat ((aka suricate)) just as humans can identify our friends’ and family’s voices over the phone, a 2011 study showed that meerkats can distinguish between the calls of different members of their clan.

While most of the gang is out foraging and hunting for food—or standing guard—one male or female, adolescent or young adult stays behind in the burrow to “babysit” any pups. This is not an official job—whichever adult is least hungry is put on pup-sitting duty—but the other meerkats do reward their sitter with food at the end of the day.

Although they are social and even affectionate within their clan, meerkats are highly territorial and will engage in violent, all-out turf wars with neighboring gangs. The fights are waged as a collective, with each gang posturing and attempting to intimidate the opposition first. If this fails, the fight will be brief but deadly—less than half all adult meerkats survive any given year. Also, a Meerkat mother will bring its pups live bugs and teach them how to kill the prey.