How Do Meerkats Teach the Next Generation to Eat Scorpions?

演化之聲
Mar 14
5 min read

Updated: Apr 10

Meerkats (Suricata suricatta) are highly social mammals whose group living provides an excellent opportunity to study teaching and social learning in animals. In animal behaviour research, teaching is defined by several strict criteria: an experienced individual must modify its behaviour in the presence of a naïve learner, incur some cost or effort by doing so, and the change must help the learner acquire a skill more efficiently than it would through independent trial and error. Observations of how adult meerkats help pups learn to handle dangerous prey such as scorpions provide a clear example of this process in the wild.

Meerkats（Image source：Charles J. Sharp， CC BY-SA 4.0 ）

In the Kalahari Desert, meerkats feed largely on insects, other arthropods, and small vertebrates. Many of these prey items possess powerful defensive mechanisms, including venomous stings. Scorpions are among the most hazardous. Young meerkats that have just begun to forage independently have almost no ability to deal with such prey. If they relied solely on their own attempts, the risk of injury or death would be extremely high.

Adult helpers in the group therefore modify the way they provide prey to the pups. Instead of simply feeding them, they adjust the condition of the prey according to the pups' age and competence. The youngest pups typically receive scorpions that have already been killed. As the pups grow older, the helpers present them with live scorpions whose stingers have been removed. Only when the young animals approach independence do they begin to receive intact, fully alive scorpions. This graded sequence allows pups to practise hunting skills under progressively more challenging conditions.

Such behaviour involves clear costs to the adults. Capturing and modifying prey requires extra time and energy, and while the pups practise handling the prey there is always a risk that it may escape. Nonetheless, adults repeatedly engage in this behaviour, indicating that the investment benefits the development of the young.

Field observations demonstrate that the strategy is effective. As pups age and accumulate experience, the proportion of prey they lose declines, their speed in handling scorpions increases, and the number of injuries they sustain decreases. In other words, the behaviour of adult meerkats accelerates the acquisition of critical foraging skills.

Experimental evidence supports the same conclusion. Researchers played recordings of begging calls from pups that simulated either very young or older individuals. Adult helpers adjusted the type of prey they provided in response to the calls, delivering safer prey when the calls resembled those of younger pups and more challenging prey when the calls resembled those of older ones. This shows that the adults are responding directly to cues about the learner's developmental stage.

In addition to modifying prey before delivery, adult meerkats often supervise pups while they handle prey. When a pup interacts with a scorpion, an adult may remain nearby and observe closely. If necessary, the adult intervenes using its nose or forepaws to restrain the prey. If the pup loses control of the scorpion, the helper may retrieve it, remove the sting or further restrict its movement, and then return it to the pup so the learning process can continue.

Meerkat capturing a scorpion

Learning in meerkats, however, is not limited to direct teaching from adults to pups. Research using a specially designed experimental apparatus has revealed additional layers of social learning within the group. In these experiments, researchers introduced a device containing food that could be opened by manipulating particular components. By observing how different individuals interacted with the apparatus, scientists were able to separate social influences from individual trial-and-error learning.

Several distinct social learning processes were detected. One was emulation. When a meerkat saw another individual enter the device to obtain food, it became more likely to attempt the task itself, though it did not necessarily copy the exact movements used by the demonstrator. Instead, the observer appeared to learn that accessing the device was possible.

Another process was local enhancement. When one meerkat interacted with a specific location on the apparatus, other individuals that had watched the interaction were more likely to approach and explore that same location later. This spatial attraction effect was particularly strong in younger animals.

Researchers also identified a previously unrecognized phenomenon termed observational perseverance. When a meerkat observed another individual successfully obtaining food, it tended to persist longer in its own attempts. Although this did not directly increase the probability of solving the task in a single attempt, it significantly prolonged the time individuals spent trying, thereby increasing the chances of eventual success.

Alongside these social influences, non-social learning processes also played a major role. Meerkats clearly displayed the effects of operant conditioning: successful attempts increased the likelihood of future interactions with the task, while repeated experience improved both speed and success rates. Interestingly, unsuccessful attempts also contributed to learning. Individuals that had previously failed multiple times often persisted longer and were more likely to succeed later, suggesting that errors themselves provided useful information for refining behaviour.

Motivation also influenced learning outcomes. When an individual had already obtained sufficient food, its tendency to abandon the task increased. Social status further affected learning patterns: dominant individuals appeared less influenced by reinforcement processes, perhaps because their higher rank allowed easier access to resources, reducing the need to persist.

Despite strong evidence for social learning within the groups, the experiments did not reveal the formation of stable behavioural traditions. Even though demonstrator animals used particular techniques to access food, the rest of the group did not consistently adopt a single method over time. One possible explanation is that the social influences guiding attention were too diffuse. When a meerkat saw another individual interacting with a specific part of the apparatus, it was drawn to that location, but its attention could easily shift to other nearby features. As a result, the behaviour of the group was influenced collectively without converging on a single repeated solution.

This suggests that for a behaviour to become a lasting tradition within a group, social influence must be sufficiently strong and focused to channel individuals toward repeating the same solution again and again. Simple exposure or occasional imitation may not be enough.

Through the daily lives of these small desert mammals, we gain a rare view of how learning unfolds in the wild. Attention that fades with time, persistence strengthened by success, and improvement through repeated mistakes all interact within the social environment of the group. Together, these subtle processes form the foundation upon which animal traditions—and ultimately culture—can emerge.