Meerkat 孤獴

Juno

还记得迪士尼动画《狮子王》里的丁满吗？它动作敏捷，机智活泼，一路陪伴辛巴长大，你知道它是什么动物吗？没错，它其实是只狐獴，在2013年CNN评选的世界最可爱物种排行榜上名列第十六。

The Meerkat is also called a “Suricate”. Meerkats live in southern Africa. They live in dry， open plains and grasslands.

Meerkats are slender and have a pointed little face and tiny ears. Meerkats have 1）grizzled gray and brown colored coats of fur with dark patches around their eyes， which help protect their eyes from the glare of the sun. They also have a dark tip on the tail. Meerkats have powerful claws for digging. Their pointed snout helps enable them to excavate prey from narrow 2）trenches. Meerkats' slender bodies are 25 to 35 centimeters long and their tails are almost as long as their bodies at 18 to 25 centimeters. Adults weigh less than 1 kilogram.

Meerkats are 3）diurnal animals and only 4）forage during the day. They are 5）agile little hunters. Their main diet consists of

1） grizzled [ˈɡrɪzld] adj.灰色的

2） trench [trentʃ] n.壕溝;战壕

3） diurnal [daɪˈɜːnl] adj.白天的;每日的

4） forage [ˈfɒrɪdʒ] nv.觅食;搜寻

5） agile [ˈædʒaɪl] adj.敏捷的;机敏的

insects and particularly beetles， spiders and 6）millipedes. They may chew on 7）tsama melons and dig up roots for water. They are very possessive of their food and defend their prey from other members of their pack. Because they have very little fat to store energy， meerkats have to forage and hunt every day or they'll starve to die.

As social animals， meerkats live in groups that can include as many as 30 individuals， although the average pack size is around ten to 15 individuals. Meerkats have a 8）matriarchal society， with adult females generally slightly larger than males. Female meerkats give birth to 2 - 4 young after a gestation period of 11 weeks. During this time， an adult meerkat will take responsibility of a pup and teach it to forage and be alert to danger. Meerkats reach sexual maturity at 10 months and adulthood at 11 months. The life span of a meerkat is 12 - 14 years.

6） millipede [ˈmɪlɪpiːd] n.千足虫8） matriarchal [ˌmeɪtriˈɑːkl]adj.母系氏族的

7） tsama [tsama] n.西瓜

狐獴也被称为“猫鼬”。狐獴栖息于非洲南部，生活在干燥、开阔的平原和草原地区。

狐獴躯干修长笔直，脸颊锥形，耳朵小。狐獴毛皮的颜色通常是灰色或棕色，眼睛周围有深色的斑块，有助于保护眼睛免受太阳的眩光。他们的尾巴上也有一个暗色的尖尖。狐獴有力的爪子方便进行挖掘。他们尖尖的鼻子有助于他们从狭窄的战壕中挖掘猎物。狐獴身长25到35厘米，尾巴几乎和身体一样长，有18到25厘米。成年狐獴体重也不超过1千克。

狐獴是日间活动的动物，白天只觅食。它们是敏捷的小猎手，主要食物是昆虫，特别是甲虫、蜘蛛和千足虫。它们可能会咀嚼山瓜，挖根找水。它们非常护食，会保护它们的食物免受其他成员的偷窃。它们体内几乎没有脂肪以储存能量，所以如果它们没有每天觅食就会饿死。

狐獴是一种群居动物。每个狐獴种群可由30只狐獴组成，但通常每个族群由10～15只狐獴组成。狐獴群体所构建的是一个母系社会，成年女性通常比男性稍大。雌性狐獴在11周的孕期后产下2〜4个幼兽。在此期间，成年的狐獴将负责一只幼兽，并教它觅食和警惕危险。幼兽在10个月后达到性成熟，在11个月成年。狐獴的寿命为12～14年。