14 DAY TRIAL // When meerkat cubs are born, the entire group is in attendance and, over the first 3 months or so of life, all of the adults stop at nothing to ensure that their little ones have all they need to survive. Researchers have even observed the fact that the older meerkats even give away some of their food to the begging youngsters, which call out their demands in a squeaky voice. Puzzled at how, after about 100 days, the adults stop spoiling their offspring, zoologists at the University of Cambridge proceeded to investigate the changes the amazingly-cute cubs experience that make them fend for themselves.
In their investigations, published in the May 17th issue of the scientific journal Animal Behavior, the experts learned that, after about 3 months of life, the cubs seem to distance themselves from their parents and other adults, in terms of depending on them for nourishment, and that they start digging up their own food. At the same time, even if the offspring beg for some food, the adults simply ignore them. What puzzled scientists most was the fact that this change in behavior happened very fast, within the course of a few weeks.
Unable to find any physical signs of change in the pups, the researchers, led by expert Joah Madden, turned to analyzing the sounds each group age produces. They learned that, as the cubs turned into juveniles, the peak frequency of their voice dropped from 1231 Hz to 953 Hz. Eager to find out if this change was responsible for the change in behavior, the investigation team placed speakers in the meerkat enclosure at the university, and played the higher-pitched sound first. As if on command, the adults started offering their food to their offspring, even if they were juveniles, and not pups.
Additionally, when the sound was played, offspring that were old enough to find food for themselves stopped foraging and ran to the adults, to get the food for free. The experts hypothesize that the animals developed this filtering mechanism in order to ensure the survival of the colony. And, while for the first 100 days, the adults' behavior is crucial for the survival of the pup, when the offspring grows and can feed itself, it must stop relaying on the group for sustenance. Otherwise, the entire colony risks starving and perishing, the team concluded, Wired reports.