The meerkat is the African safari animal famous for living in underground colonies with sentry duty.
Meerkats are small mongooses native mainly to the arid regions of southern Africa. They live in cooperative groups, often called mobs or gangs, that share burrows and help protect one another from predators such as jackals, martial eagles and snakes.
While the group forages, one meerkat may stand upright on a raised position and watch the surroundings. The lookout gives an alarm call when danger approaches. This behaviour is not a rigid job assigned to one individual; different members take turns, and adults may supervise young animals.
Meerkats are often mistaken for prairie dogs because both stand upright and live socially underground. They are not rodents, however. Meerkats are carnivorous mammals in the mongoose family, and their diet includes insects, scorpions, lizards and small vertebrates.