"Flower" isn't the kind of name you'd normally expect for a ruthless dictator.
But that's the nickname of a female meerkat who rules her group with a sharp-toothed maw, making her a star on Meerkat Manor, a television show on the Discovery Channel.
The show is filmed in South Africa, where University of Cambridge biologist Tim Clutton-Brock and his team have been studying this group of meerkats, known as the Whiskers, for more than a decade (South Africa map).
A new study from this team shows that Flower is no anomaly. She does what every female meerkat aspires to do: bully her way to the top for exclusive rights to reproduce. (Related story: "Murderous Meerkat Moms Contradict Caring Image, Study Finds" [March 15, 2006].)
Huge Rewards
Meerkats, who belong to the mongoose family, are very social, living in groups of up to 50 in underground burrows near the Kalahari Desert.
The animals, which live mostly off foraged insects, are about the size of a large burrito: a foot long (30 centimeters), with a weight of about one and a half pounds (700 grams).
Meerkat females gain huge rewards by fighting for leadership.
Dominant females hold a virtual monopoly on successful reproduction, giving birth to the vast majority of the group's pups.
The rest of the females, having submitted, pitch in with feeding and caring for the dominant female's young.
"In many species, females care for the young, and males tend to have [evolved] for body weight, weaponry, aggression," said Sarah Hodge, a member of the research team.
"But there are some species, meerkats included, where females are providing the care and yet females are very aggressive."
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