Maliciousness of Meerkats the Secret to their Success

Most animals will do just about anything to survive, but meerkats take it to a whole other level. These malicious desert creatures prevent their daughters from breeding and kill their own offspring in a quest for dominance, according to a new study.

This sinister species - which lives in groups with a dominant breeding pair and many adult helpers - shows that the alpha female will stop at nothing to be the last one standing and maintain the sole right to breed.

While seemingly cruel, this way of life, also found in many animals such as ants and bees, can prove effective.

Dominant meerkats control breeding within their group through violence, by banishing any other females who reproduce. If their subordinates do reproduce, the alpha female kills their offspring to ensure that her own pups have access to as many resources as possible without worry of competition.

Scientists studied the impact of giving contraceptive jabs to adult female helpers in 12 groups of meerkats in the Kalahari Desert, to ensure that they could not reproduce for six months.

During this time, dominant females found better ways to spend their time without the worry of other females. They were less aggressive towards helpers and foraged more, gaining more weight and having bigger pups. The female helper meerkats experienced less violence than usual from the alpha female, and provided more care and food for the pups.

"Our study reveals that dominant animals are worse off when subordinates in their group try to breed - explaining why they brutally suppress others much of the time. We expected this result, but its impact exceeded our expectations," Dr. Matthew Bell of the University of Edinburgh, School of Biological Sciences, who led the study, said in a statement.

This paradoxical lifestyle shows just how harsh life in the wild can be.

The study is published in the journal Nature Communications.