Meerkat 孤獴

Juno

還記得迪士尼動畫《獅子王》里的丁滿嗎？它動作敏捷，機智活潑，一路陪伴辛巴長大，你知道它是什么動物嗎？沒錯，它其實是只狐獴，在2013年CNN評選的世界最可愛物種排行榜上名列第十六。

The Meerkat is also called a “Suricate”. Meerkats live in southern Africa. They live in dry， open plains and grasslands.

Meerkats are slender and have a pointed little face and tiny ears. Meerkats have 1）grizzled gray and brown colored coats of fur with dark patches around their eyes， which help protect their eyes from the glare of the sun. They also have a dark tip on the tail. Meerkats have powerful claws for digging. Their pointed snout helps enable them to excavate prey from narrow 2）trenches. Meerkats' slender bodies are 25 to 35 centimeters long and their tails are almost as long as their bodies at 18 to 25 centimeters. Adults weigh less than 1 kilogram.

Meerkats are 3）diurnal animals and only 4）forage during the day. They are 5）agile little hunters. Their main diet consists of

1） grizzled [?ɡr?zld] adj.灰色的

2） trench [trent?] n.壕溝;戰(zhàn)壕

3） diurnal [da????nl] adj.白天的;每日的

4） forage [?f?r?d?] nv.覓食;搜尋

5） agile [??d?a?l] adj.敏捷的;機敏的

insects and particularly beetles， spiders and 6）millipedes. They may chew on 7）tsama melons and dig up roots for water. They are very possessive of their food and defend their prey from other members of their pack. Because they have very little fat to store energy， meerkats have to forage and hunt every day or they'll starve to die.

As social animals， meerkats live in groups that can include as many as 30 individuals， although the average pack size is around ten to 15 individuals. Meerkats have a 8）matriarchal society， with adult females generally slightly larger than males. Female meerkats give birth to 2 - 4 young after a gestation period of 11 weeks. During this time， an adult meerkat will take responsibility of a pup and teach it to forage and be alert to danger. Meerkats reach sexual maturity at 10 months and adulthood at 11 months. The life span of a meerkat is 12 - 14 years.

6） millipede [?m?l?pi?d] n.千足蟲8） matriarchal [?me?tri?ɑ?kl]adj.母系氏族的

7） tsama [tsama] n.西瓜

狐獴也被稱為“貓鼬”。狐獴棲息于非洲南部，生活在干燥、開闊的平原和草原地區(qū)。

狐獴軀干修長筆直，臉頰錐形，耳朵小。狐獴毛皮的顏色通常是灰色或棕色，眼睛周圍有深色的斑塊，有助于保護眼睛免受太陽的眩光。他們的尾巴上也有一個暗色的尖尖。狐獴有力的爪子方便進行挖掘。他們尖尖的鼻子有助于他們從狹窄的戰(zhàn)壕中挖掘獵物。狐獴身長25到35厘米，尾巴幾乎和身體一樣長，有18到25厘米。成年狐獴體重也不超過1千克。

狐獴是日間活動的動物，白天只覓食。它們是敏捷的小獵手，主要食物是昆蟲，特別是甲蟲、蜘蛛和千足蟲。它們可能會咀嚼山瓜，挖根找水。它們非常護食，會保護它們的食物免受其他成員的偷竊。它們體內(nèi)幾乎沒有脂肪以儲存能量，所以如果它們沒有每天覓食就會餓死。

狐獴是一種群居動物。每個狐獴種群可由30只狐獴組成，但通常每個族群由10～15只狐獴組成。狐獴群體所構(gòu)建的是一個母系社會，成年女性通常比男性稍大。雌性狐獴在11周的孕期后產(chǎn)下2?4個幼獸。在此期間，成年的狐獴將負責(zé)一只幼獸，并教它覓食和警惕危險。幼獸在10個月后達到性成熟，在11個月成年。狐獴的壽命為12～14年。