Meerkat killing an elephant shrew, as illustrated in Brehm's Life of Animals

Description
English: Meerkat killing elephant shrew
Date 1894
Source Brehm's Life of animals : a complete natural history for popular home instruction and for the use of schools
Author Alfred Edmund Brehm (1829-1884)
Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Suricatevselephantmouse.png

The meerkat or suricate (Suricata suricatta) is a small carnivoran belonging to the mongoose family (Herpestidae). It is the only member of the genus Suricata. Meerkats live in all parts of the Kalahari Desert in Botswana, in much of the Namib Desert in Namibia and southwestern Angola, and in South Africa. A group of meerkats is called a "mob", "gang" or "clan". A meerkat clan often contains about 20 meerkats, but some super-families have 50 or more members. In captivity, meerkats have an average life span of 12–14 years, and about half this in the wild. Order: Carnivora, Family: Herpestidae, Genus: Suricata, Species: Suricata suricatta (Schreber, 1776).