Information On The Suricate

Information

Suricates are carnivores. Its habitat and range consists of the dry plains of southern Africa.

Size: Head and body-ten to fourteen inches. Tail- 7 to 19 inches.

In captivity, life span to 10 years.

Gestation Period: about 2 1/2 months. Number of young, 2 to 4.

Suricates have their babies in burrows. The female may give birth to more than one litter each year. The young are born blind and nearly hairless. After they are one month old they are allowed to leave the burrow.

The young play much of the time. Older brothers and sisters as well as parents groom, guard, and play with the young. They are fully grown within a year.

sricat2jpg

Some of the suricates sit on the ground, while others stand on their hind legs and search the skies for such enemies as the eagles and hawks. It gives off a loud, shrill cry when spotting danger. Upon hearing the alarm the others scurry for their burrows.

Never wandering far from their burrows they search for food, noses to the ground, they scratch the dirt for insects and larvae. They have been known to eat lizards and mice.