Meerkat mobs do ’war dance’ to protect territory

Meerkat clans perform a 'war dance' to frighten opponents and protect their territory, according to a new UCL and University of Cambridge study. The study, published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B , is the first empirical study to reveal intergroup aggression. The researchers, who monitored hundreds of these intergroup encounters over 11 years, show that meetings between meerkat clans often turn aggressive and sometimes escalate to fighting and lethal violence. The study reveals that in more than half of interactions (64.7%) meerkat clans' exhibit aggression by either chasing or doing a 'war dance', where a meerkat displays an erect tail and puffed-out fur, possibly to make the group appear larger than its size. Lead author and evolutionary anthropologist Dr Mark Dyble (UCL Anthropology and formerly of University of Cambridge), said: "We show that interactions between meerkat groups are never tolerant, that the majority involve some form of aggression and that a minority result in physical violence. "However, even when interactions between meerkat groups do not result in physical violence, they may have territorial consequences, with losing groups moving to sleeping burrows closer to the centre of their territory and winning groups moving to burrows further from the centre of their territory." Meerkats live in stable and highly social groups and within these clans there are high levels of co-operation. Each clan is made up of about 20 members and there is a dominant male and a dominant female who monopolize reproduction, producing more than 80% of offspring born in the group.