Meerkat Watch – best places to view habituated Meerkats in Africa!

Where is the best place to get closer to Meerkats in Africa?  A question we are often asked!

There are a number of lodges in southern Africa where your chances of coming face to face with a meerkat are reasonably high.  Groups of meerkats are habituated to human presence over time which allows you – as a guest – to also get a little closer than you would with totally unhabituated, or wild, meerkats.

Probably one of the very best areas to get closer to groups of habituated meerkats would be the Makgadikgadi Pans in southern Botswana – but other locations to view habituated groups include South Africa – such as Tswalu Private Game Reserve and Buffelsdrift Game Lodge, Oudtshoorn and Longhill Reserve near Addo Elephant National Park.

I stayed at Jack’s Camp and was very excited at the prospect – at last – to meet the meerkats in their own environment!   We were up very early in the morning and on the way we stopped and  picked up a local gentleman whose job it was to spend time with the colony every day – simply moving with them and being around them to slowly habituate the meerkats to human presence over time.

Jack’s Camp has three colonies, of which two are fully habituated and the other is semi-habituated, they utilize different burrow systems which they interchange at different times of the year dependent on available resources.

• Kubu Colony is fully habituated and has 13 individuals – 7 adults and 6 pups (6 months old).
• Magogo Colony is also fully habituated and has 6 individuals – 5 adults and 1 pup (7 months old)
• Chapmans Colony is semi-habituated with 14 individuals – 7 adults and 7 pups (7 months old)

On arrival at where the meerkats were last seen the night before, we stopped the vehicle, got out and sat on the ground by  the entrances to their underground burrow – an extensive series of tunnels and sleeping chambers.  Meerkats are active during the day but at night retire to sleep communally in borrows or holes in the ground. Within minutes the meerkats emerged slowly, cautiously at first, and our encounter began.

Meerkats are members of the mongoose family and have tall, slender bodies and long tails.  Their fur is sandy coloured to blend it perfectly with the desert conditions they live in, with dark patches around their eyes, which help protect their eyes from the glare of the sun.  Meerkats have powerful claws on their front legs which are ideal for digging and a pointed snout to assist them leveraging their prey after digging and foraging – such as grubs, insects and termites, as well as eggs, small vertebrates and some vegetation.

Living in colonies of around 15 – 30 members –  meerkats are very social and gregarious and spend their time on the move foraging for food, basking in the sun or grooming. They are always looking out for birds of prey and snakes and often stand up their hind legs or climb to higher ground where they have better vision of their immediate area.  They live in groups, or mobs,  which may consist of several families living together, and their preferred habitat is desert – dry, open plains and grasslands –  it is possible to see totally wild and unhabituated meerkats in desert areas of Botswana, Namibia, South Africa, Zimbabwe and Mozambique.

Meerkats are gregarious and have at least ten distinctive vocalisations. It is great fun to follow the mobs and watch them digging for insects and grubs – communicating continuously to each other.  You spend an hour or more with the meerkats observing their behaviour, watching them play and following them whilst they forage. Occasionally, if you sit very still, their desire to scan the area for danger will result in them using you as a means to getting to higher ground to check on their surroundings.  Heads and shoulders offer great perches and great photographic opportunities!