NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA 



handled, but it is easily alarmed, and if roughly 

 handled it will bite viciously. At the Port Elizabeth 

 Museum we have kept them alive from time to time. 

 They are showy little animals sharp, alert, and full 

 of energy. They thrive on a diet of meat and eggs. 



The general colour of the Bushy-tailed Meerkat 

 is reddish-yellow. The fur is slaty at the base, 

 then yellow, the tips of the longer hairs being 

 ringed brown and white. The under parts are 

 whitish ; chin and throat white ; ears brown 

 margined with white hairs ; limbs paler than the 

 back ; five dark claws on each of the fore limbs, 

 and four to the hind limbs. Tail long and covered 

 with rather lengthy hairs, which are yellow at the 

 base and tip, with a black broad band between. 

 The tip of the tail is white, but not invariably so. 



Length from tip of nose to root of tail about 

 sixteen inches. 



The Bushy-tailed Meerkat has been divided into 

 several local races owing to slight variations in the 

 colour and size. They are as follows : 



Cynictis penicillata intensa. 

 steedmanni. 



ogilbyi. 

 pallidior. 



,, leptura. 



Another species of Bushy-tailed Meerkat, known 

 as Selous' Meerkat (Cynictis selousi), occurs in 

 Rhodesia, and up the East Coast. 



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