Meerkats use subordinate animals as guinea pigs when approaching novel threats

In their environment, wild animals are exposed to countless threats, be they predators, diseases or natural obstacles to get over, such as gorges or rivers. In recent times, numerous human-made threats have been added to the naturally-existing ones, such as dangerous roads to cross. Scientists have worked to understand how animals cope with novel human-made threats by studying groups of wild meerkats, a species of socially-living mongooses.http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/k...