Meerkats eat to compete in survival of fattest
Size is likely to determine who gets to breed in meerkat clans, so rival females, in line for the throne, watch each other's weight and eat to keep up.
Meerkat females keep an eye on each other's weight and eat to keep up
Meerkat social groups, or clans, are ruled by a dominant breeding pair, who are the only animals in the group who get to breed. When a dominant female dies, she is usually replaced by the next largest and strongest female in the group.
Professor Tim Clutton-Brock, a director of research in the Zoology Department of the University of Cambridge, and his team, decided to see what would happen if they tweaked this system.
They chose a smaller female meerkat, and gave her additional food, so that she started to gain weight and "catch up" with her older sister, the female next in line above her in size, and in the succession queue. They found that the older sister recognized this challenge, and increased her own feeding effort, so as to maintain her weight advantage, and her position in the hierarchy.
Related Links
- Paper in Nature
- Cambridge University release
- National Geographic story
- Washington Post story