Meerkat Mobs

[Dagobert]

I have a question for you fellow zoo lovers about Meerkats (suricata suricatta).

Somewhere I read that some zoos do keep multiple mobs of Meerkats in a single exhibit. How do they 'create' different mobs? Do they use two already existing mobs or are Meerkats released in an exhibit and mobs will be formed naturally? And is this the way it is used to be done for other species as well? What are the benefits of keeping multiple mobs? Does it result in much more natural behavior (Maybe even more activeness, although they are one of the most active species I've seen)? I sure would love to see the exhibition of multiple mobs someday!

Thanks in advance!

 

[Rookeyper]

Meerkats and mongoose tend to form their own "mobs". In our case here in Fort Wayne, we have more that one group of mongoose but they don't go on exhibit together--we switch them out during the day. Keeping multiple groups will lead to fighting and injury to some, possibly the low-ranking individuals.