New research has found that social interactions among meerkats may be crucial to their health and survival—thanks to the sharing of beneficial gut bacteria.
New research has found that social interactions among meerkats may be crucial to their health and survival—thanks to the sharing of beneficial gut bacteria.
Published in the Journal of Animal Ecology, the study discovered that a meerkat’s social group membership strongly influences its gut microbiome—even more than factors such as age, sex, health, genetic relatedness, diet or environmental conditions such as temperature.
Microbiomes provide many health-related benefits and a healthy microbiome containing beneficial bacteria is vital to an animal’s immunity, behavior and overall fitness.
Meerkats live in harsh desert environments and form large social groups, known as mobs or clans. While group living is known to offer protection from predators, this new study suggests that social life may also bring important health benefits that could be crucial to their survival in such challenging conditions.
Led by Dr. Krishna Balasubramaniam of Anglia Ruskin University (ARU), the research analyzed more than 500 fecal samples from 146 wild meerkats across eight social groups at the Kalahari Research Center in South Africa.
The researchers identified 119 types of gut bacteria and discovered that social group membership, more than any individual, social or environmental factor, had the greatest influence on the composition of a meerkat’s gut microbiome.
