Adopt a meerkat

Adopting a meerkat at Paignton Zoo is a great gift idea that will also help us to deliver our wildlife conservation programmes. By adopting a meerkat, your money will make a real contribution to our vital conservation work.

Habitat

Meerkats live in the Kalahari Desert in Botswana, the Namib Desert in Namibia and south-western Angola and in South Africa.

Wild Diet

Scorpions, beetles, spiders, centipedes, millipedes, worms, crickets, small mammals, small reptiles, birds, eggs, tubers and roots.

Behaviour

Meerkats are a type of mongoose. A group of meerkats, usually five to thirty members, is called a "mob" or a "gang”. They are very territorial and will fiercely defend their home from other meerkat gangs. When feeding, one member of the group acts as a sentry watching out for predators. They communicate by sound using a variety of calls to signal certain situations such as being lost, alarm calls, pup feeding, guarding and foraging calls.

Breeding

The female has 2 to 5 young, usually once a year, after a gestation period of 11 weeks.

How do I adopt a meerkat?

First choose the adoption package you wish to purchase, see below, and then make your animal selection.

Adoptions apply to the species rather than individual animals. This is because our animals may move to other zoos as part of breeding programmes.

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