Teaching Timon

Apparently older meerkats (S. suricatta) teach pups how to obtain food by incrementally introducing dead, injured and then live prey. As the University of Cambridge press release notes, although learning per se wouldn't be surprising, whether wild mammals teach their young was still debated. This paper provides evidence for teaching, using the Caro and Hauser definition of teaching: "(i.) an individual, A, modifies its behaviour only in the presence of a naïve observer, B; (ii) A incurs some cost or derives no immediate benefit; and (iii) as a result of A's behaviour, B acquires knowledge or skills more rapidly or efficiently than it would otherwise, or that it would not have learned at all."

The University of Cambridge researchers discovered that in order for the helpers to teach the pups how to handle food without putting them in harm's way, the older meerkats would kill or disable the prey before providing it to the pups. In the case of the scorpions, they often removed the sting. The helpers would then modify the frequency with which they killed or disabled the prey according to the pups' age, recognised by their call, gradually introducing pups to live prey as they became older. ... Like any good teacher, the helpers would also monitor the pup after they had provided it with food. If the pup was reluctant to handle the prey, the older meerkat would nudge the item towards them to encourage it. Additionally, if the prey wondered off the helper would retrieve the item and return it to the pup, sometimes further disabling it before returning it to the young meerkat. (source)

The paper is: Alex Thornton and Katherine McAuliffe (2006) "Teaching in Wild Meerkats" Science 14 July 2006: 227-229 (link).