Abiotic and Biotic Factors

Abiotic factors are non-living components that are also physical factors in an environment. The abiotic factors in the environment in which Meerkats live include:

• Sunlight-to warm up their body in order to gain energy to begin the days activities i.e. hunting
  
  
• Sand- can reach up to a temperature of 70 degrees Celsius.
  
  
• Rocks- as a perch to lookout for prey, meerkats can utilise this until dusk, when it is time to return home before the cool night air. 
  
  
• Water- can expect up to only 250 mm of rainfall a year usually from January to April- the end of summer.
  
  
• Temperature- in the summer from October to April temperature can reach up to 40 degrees Celsius, and during the winter months May to September reach a temperature of 28 degrees Celsius. 
  

Biotic Factors include other living organisms with which Meerkats interact with. The biotic factors in a Meerkat's environment include:

• Predators- an animal that preys on meerkats, including hawks, eagles, jackals, and snakes.  
  
  
• Prey- an animal that is hunted or killed by meerkats for food, which includes both plants and animals as they are omnivores- diet consists of mainly insects, small rodents, fruit, birds, eggs, lizards and poisonous scorpion.

• Ground Squirrel- friendly animals that meerkats tolerate as den mates because they help excavate the burrows. 
  




• Diseases- Meerkats are carriers of rabies which is a contagious and fatal viral disease transmissible through the saliva to humans and causing madness and convulsions. Meerkats also are carriers of tick-borne diseases, which live within meerkat's fur.