« Green Machines: Dell PC Trees | Main | Ele-Facts: When To Go See The Seals »
January 19, 2007
Millipedes As Meerkat Meals
I was watching the National Geographic Wild Chronicles video podcast the other day about meerkats hunting and teaching their young. In one scene, a couple of meerkats drag a large, black Kalahari millipede across the dusty ground.
Many species of millipede secrete a mildly poisonous substance as a defense mechanism to discourage predators from making the slow-walking creepy crawly from becoming an easy meal. While it's poison wouldn't kill a merrkat (they hunt many poisonous animals and have developed tolerances to stuff like scorpion venom), this secretion certainly doesn't make them taste very good.
Although the meerkats appear to be toying with their meal, researchers believe that they are actually cleaning off the bug. Off the top of my head, I cannot think of any other animals that clean their food before eating it, except us.
You can watch this video podcast and others at: NGS Wild Chronicles
Posted by sorsha at January 19, 2007 1:02 PM
TrackBack
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.perlgurl.org/mt/mt-tb.cgi/506
Comments
raccoons also clean their food.
Posted by: Desi | February 15, 2007 1:28 AM
Desi, that's a very interesting observation and perhaps meerkats are performing a similar behavior.
That said, Wikipedia (which tends to be vetted by experts, at least some of the time) claims:
"Raccoons sometimes wash, or douse, their food in water before eating it. It is unknown why raccoons perform dousing, but cleaning food is unlikely to be the reason.
Studies have found that raccoons engage in dousing motions when water is unavailable; researchers note that captive raccoons are more likely than wild raccoons to douse food.
It has been suggested that captive raccoons are mimicking fishing and shellfish-foraging behaviors. It may also be that the raccoon is searching for unwanted material, as water is thought to heighten their sense of touch."
Either way, its some pretty interesting behavior!!!
Thanks for the comment, Desi!
Posted by: Lauren Darcey | February 16, 2007 11:51 AM