ANOTHER EXAMPLE

MEERKATS.

Meerkats are small very intelligent animals that live in the Kalahari desert in Africa. They are distant relatives to the mongoose family and are usually about twelve inches in length. Meerkats can stand upright for hours on their hind legs and will do this early in the morning while taking a sun bath. They also do this while on sentry duty in order to see any imminent threat approaching.

Meerkats live in a tight family circle which is led by a dominant female and a dominant male. The family can be as small as four meerkats or as large as thirty. The dominant female makes all the decisions for the group, they follow her lead in everything and she is the only female allowed to get pregnant and have cubs. The other females are usually her daughters or sisters which are her in subordinates. If any insubordinate mates and gets pregnant the dominant female will evict them from the family even if its her own daughter or kill the cubs when they are born. Having cubs is a way of gaining dominance and respect so the dominant female cannot allow this.

Meerkats are also a well structured family unit with each member knowing and carrying out their daily responsibilities. They live underground in burrows, they work together to make it a home, they have a main entrance like our front door which every morning they take turns to clean, they also have several escape routes leading from the main burrow. Other meerkats are responsible for sentry duty

There is so much we can learn from watching the behavior of animals. Most animals live a structured life and form a family unit and together they support and protect each other. Lions for example form what is called a "PRIDE" which consists of the pride male who is the protector, females who are lionesses who hunt to feed the pride and sometimes adolescents (teenage lions) and lastly cubs.
These lions work together as a unit for the well being of the whole family. The lionesses teach their cubs how to hunt, the dangers of their surrounding and protect and feed them until they are old enough to be on their own.