Meerkat Clans—The Original Social Network  Created Creature  by
Heather Brinson Bruce on October 1, 2012 Audio Version  In the
age of Facebook and Twitter, it’s nice to be reminded that
twenty-first-century humans weren’t the first to develop social
networks. Meerkat clans were working together in southern Africa
long before Mark Zuckerberg and Jack Dorsey came on the scene.
The sun rises, dispelling the night cold, as a few meerkats
start crawling out of their desert burrow. It is so cold
underground that they must spend several minutes warming their
bellies before they start the day’s activities.  A Job for
Everyone    Each morning the alpha female heads off first. With
several pups to feed, it is imperative that she never go hungry.
The alpha female rules each meerkat pack, or mob, which numbers
from 20 to 50 members. She chooses her mate (the alpha male) and
the two of them produce around 80% of the mob’s pups. All the
other meerkats are subservient to the ruling alphas.   Meerkat
Sentinal   Sentinels (a