Awesome Animal Fact - Scorpion-eating Meerkats

Did you know meerkats like to eat scorpions? And that they teach their young how to safely kill scorpions? Meerkats, those adorable mammals from southern Africa that like to stand tall on their hind legs, are omnivores, but they really like scorpions.

Hunting scorpions is dangerous business, so meerkat parents teach their young by bringing them scorpions that have been dismembered. When adult meerkats find a scorpion, they dart in, grab it quickly, and rip the stinger from the arachnid's tail. A scorpion's pinchers don't have venom, though they can still be painful, so meerkats usually remove those too.

To teach the very young meerkats, the adults bring them dead scorpions. As the youngsters get more experience, the adults bring them live scorpions with the stinger and pinchers removed. Finally, when the young are mature enough, the adults bring them live intact scorpions.

Even with the stinger removed, some scorpions still have venom in their exoskeletons, so meerkats have even learned to rub their captured scorpions in the sand to remove the remaining venom.

Photo Credits:
- Meerkat family - DepositPhotos