While they won’t be making wisecracks like Timon from The Lion King, meerkats are enormously entertaining all the same.

Busy above the ground and burrowing just beneath the surface, meerkats live in colonies that are over 50 feet (15 meters) across with up to 3 levels and 15 entrances. At Walt Disney World Resort, you can watch these curious creatures work and play just as they do in their native habitat—the open plains of South Africa, Namibia, Botswana and Angola.

At Disney’s Animal Kingdom theme park, you’ll discover a “gang” of meerkats living hakuna matata-style along the Gorilla Falls Exploration Trail.

• Nourishment Meerkats Dig: Hollowed melons, gourds and pumpkins are ideal foods for these curious creatures. Offering meerkats new textures and tastes to (literally!) dig into encourages them to interact with their surroundings. Puzzle-activated feeders offer a stimulating challenge—and tasty reward.
• 
  
• Carnivorous Creatures: In the wild, a meerkat’s diet depends on what’s available. While they predominantly eat bugs and larvae, such as butterflies, crickets, termites and spiders, they’ll also eat small animals and eggs. To satisfy the meerkat’s carnivorous cravings, Disney animal care experts offer them an assortment of meat and bugs. At mealtime, the meerkats are trained to stand at a feeding “station” so caretakers can be sure the whole gang gets enough to eat every day.
• 
  
• All for One: Did you know? The tight-knit social structure of meerkats is highly exclusive. When a meerkat leaves the group, there is no guarantee they will be accepted back. This can cause problems when an individual needs to be separated from its gang for medical care. The solution? If a meerkat needs a veterinary checkup, the whole family makes the trip together, so no one is separated from the group.

The Walt Disney Company is committed to saving wildlife and protecting the magic of nature together as a global community.

Fortunately, meerkats are not currently in danger of extinction, and no urgent conservation measures are required. However, it is still important to safeguard meerkat habitats to ensure that these busy burrowers thrive for years to come.

Disney Conservation Fund* (DCF) supports organizations and communities working to protect spaces for people and wildlife across Africa and the world.

Also, through the DCF, Disney works to protect many African animals like elephants, gorillas and rhinos. The fund supports the efforts of nonprofit organizations to study imperiled species in critical ecosystems and protect their habitats. This conservation work helps all the animals in these habitats, including meerkats.