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10/28/2013

Topic Reading-Vol.565-10/28/2013

Dear MEL School’s Topic Readers,
Meerkats 'pay rent' to dominant female to stay in group.
It’s quite amazing to learn that the meerkat, a small mammal of the mongoose family that lives in the deserts in Southern Africa, has very aggressive suppression by its dominant female within a group. It was found that subordinate females wet nurse or babysit the dominant female’s offspring in order not be evicted by the boss meerkat.
It looks that the dominant female doesn’t want to have competing offspring against hers. So she kicks other pregnant female subordinates out of her group, unless they are cooperative to her and her offspring. And it seems vital for their survival whether to be allowed to stay in the group or evicted because being alone has higher risk to be attacked by its predators.
Enjoy reading and learning about this amazing behavior of this little mammal in the desert.


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