Meerkat foraging

Meerkats in the wild spend most of their days busy foraging for food. This study examines how supplemental feedings made possible with the help of an automatic feeder affect foraging activity.

In addition to the regular feedings offered by the keepers during the day, the feeding device scatters food throughout the enclosure at multiple timepoints. This provides the meerkats an incentive to continue foraging throughout the day. To track and analyze the meerkats’ foraging behaviors, the researcher enters their observations in a tablet.