Ontogeny of Playful Contact in a Social Mongoose, the Meerkat, Suricata suricatta

Playful contact interaction within a captive family of six meerkatswas observed using a rotating focal animal observation methodover a 5-month period. Ten interaction patterns are described.The mother interacted playfully with her family members at alow rate while the father and young initeracted together farmore than with the mother. The parents sniffed all family membersabout equally, but all offspring sniffed the father far morethan they sniffed the mother. Dyadic interaction sequences betweenthe youngsters incorporated two patterns that infrequently occurredin fatheryoung sequences. Eighteen-week profiles of biting andforelimb contact displayed large oscillations in rate for eachanimal, but there was little inter-individual concurrence ineach pattern and little similarity in profiles between patterns.Playful interaction was depressed and fluctuations dampenedfollowing the birth of an ill-fated litter. Sniffing fluctuatedover a smaller amplitude than either of the other two patterns.During the 5-month observation period, only the father and oneyoungster were consistent in their choice of recipients of forelimbcontact; the other three youngsters altered the proportion ofcontact delivered to their companions. The youngsters did notexhibit significant changes in the body targets of biting overthe time period of the study.