Meet the Meerkats

A brave pack united for survival.

Meerkats need their families to watch their backs.

Dangers abound in their desert home.

For one young female, the challenge is ramped up

when she finds herself homeless.

She needs to win the support of another group.

Only together can the little predators beat the odds.

Trouble in the ranks.

This young female is just past her first birthday.

But she's ready to breed, and for that reason

the dominant female wants her out.

Meerkats live in packs that look after their own

with tenderness and care, but can fight fiercely,

even to the death when tempers run high.

Packs are run by an alpha pair,

and this alpha female doesn't want the competition.

The young female has no choice other than to leave her home

before the attacks become more serious.

Cast out, she roams the desert.

Lost without her companions to watch her back,

the Namib is no walk in the park.

It's the oldest desert on earth, challenging life

since the days of the dinosaurs,

sprawling 2000 kilometers along the western coast

of southern Africa, its endless horizons are daunting,

trapping animals in its hostile grip.

For a lone, pint-sized meerkat,

it could be a death sentence.

If the heat and lack of water don't get her,

then the desert predators might.

She doesn't have a pack to watch her back.

It's been a tough day.

Tired and stressed, she hopes to make it through the night.

The desert has a night shift,

creatures that wait for the cooler air to emerge and feed.

But the strange sounds and shapes of the night

are daunting to the little sun-lover.

Despite its prickly appearance,

the porcupine's spines are defensive, not offensive.

It just wants to dig for roots and bulbs in peace.

The young female's relief seems obvious

when sun finally tempts her from the crevice.

Meerkats always start their day by basking in the sun

but she can't relax, she doesn't know where she is,

but she knows she needs to find food and water.

As the temperature climbs, mirages form.

It looks like there's water everywhere but it's an illusion,

the hot ground bending rays of light reflecting the sky.

Actual water is much harder to find.

Most animals extract water from their food,

though there isn't much left

in the dried, sunburned vegetation.

The young female picks up an alluring smell.

She can hear birds.

A gathering flock suggests water.

The starlings are visiting a tiny waterhole.

The female takes a few life-saving sips.

But this is not a free bar.

The landlord spots the intruder.

Unwittingly, the young female has trespassed

into someone else's real estate.

The family is instantly on the defensive.

They have a lot to fight for.

Their territory contains water, the rarest desert resource.

The attack is fast and savage.

But then, perhaps feeling they have made

the message clear, the fighting stops.

Just to be on the safe side, the alpha male

goes into a frenzy of territorial scent marking,

spraying his personalized signal on prominent sign posts

and rubbing scent glands on his face.

The female is injured and still on the pack's territory.

But they ignore her and go back to foraging.

It's only by working together as a team like this

that meerkats can defend their homes.

They need to live in groups, including the young female.

She needs to integrate into a new family,

but at the moment, this clan has its hands full.

The alpha female is heavily pregnant.

The whole family seems on high alert

looking out for the mother-to-be.

She goes to ground, the pack is made up

of the alpha pair and their offspring and now

the dozen clan members hang out in the sun

waiting to meet the new arrivals.

They ignore the convalescing stranger.

The desert is a challenging place to live.

All of the creatures here have unique adaptations

to cope with one of the most hostile homes on the planet.

Antelope, like the majestic gemsbok, have low metabolisms

so they can function with a minimum food and water.

They can tolerate incredible temperatures.

Their bodies can reach 45 degrees Celsius,

enough to kill most mammals.

A network of blood vessels in their noses

helps cool the blood before it flows

to their brains to help prevent heat damage.

Even the plants here are engineered to beat the heat.

These living stones are tiny succulents, camouflaged

from plant eaters by blending in with the gravel.

Most of the plant lives underground

where it can escape the heat and avoid losing water.

The Namib experiences huge temperature changes

from below freezing at night to over 45 degrees.

And, water starved, sometimes receives

as little as two millimeters of rain each year.

Two weeks have passed.

The meerkat clan is out foraging on the plains as usual,

digging, hoping to excavate bugs

or some other buried treasure.

One strikes gold, a chunk of meat.

Perhaps it was dropped by one of the neighborhood's jackals.

Though they mostly eat little creatures they catch,

they are opportunists, protein-rich meat is a bonus,

and something worth defending.

The young female, recovered from her injuries,

has been patiently watching from the sidelines

as the clan prepares for new members,

and today is the day they've been waiting for.

Four little ones take their first steps into a bigger world.

From day one they will have the benefits of a big family.

They have a lot to learn.

It will take a group effort to protect them

and teach them all they need to know.

The young female moves in for a closer look.

But the alpha is quick to put her in her place.

For the next two months the little ones will have milk

on tap, and not just from their mother.

Remarkably, even females that have never had babies

can produce milk and help suckle the young.

For meerkats, it's a team effort from start to finish.

All members take turns at lookout,

finding a vantage point where they can scan for danger.

There is safety in numbers and that

doesn't just go for the meerkats.

African ground squirrels often hang out nearby.

They enjoy the company, though like any family,

have their ups and downs.

The rowdy neighbors don't throw

the meerkats from their duties

and eventually they settle down and forage.

Out in the sun, the squirrels have an advantage.

Their tails are built in parasols,

shading the squirrels while they work.

The meerkats have no such luxury.

But it doesn't matter, they have an important job to do.

The new members of the family need to learn to hunt.

Meerkats eat most small animals, even spiders,

though sometimes they bite off more than they can chew.

It's frustrating when you know

there is food right under your nose.

But digging with their long claws,

they disturb one bug that can bite back, a scorpion.

Many species of scorpion inhabit the desert.

All of them, like this angry

burrowing scorpion have powerful pincers