Meerkat Study Ielts Reading Answers [verified] ✦ Trending & High-Quality
Here is the developed content for “Meerkat Study IELTS Reading Answers” , structured as an IELTS Reading passage + question types + answer key + explanation. This simulates a real IELTS Academic Reading task.
2. Likely Question Types in the Meerkat Study
From real test reports and Cambridge IELTS practice books, the Meerkat passage typically includes: meerkat study ielts reading answers
- True / False / Not Given (e.g., “Only dominant females produce offspring.”)
- Matching Headings (e.g., matching paragraph summaries with subheadings.)
- Short-answer questions (e.g., “What do meerkats remove from scorpions before eating?”)
- Diagram/Flowchart Completion (e.g., steps of predator alarm response.)
- Sentence Completion (e.g., “The sentinel meerkat stands on its hind legs to ______.”)
The Story of WeeWoo the Meerkat Tutor
Part 1: The Family Mob In the Kalahari Desert, a mob (group) of meerkats lived under the dominant female, Big Mama. Only she bred; other females helped raise pups. This is cooperative breeding. Scientists from Cambridge studied them for years. Here is the developed content for “Meerkat Study
Part 2: The Alarm Call Experiment One morning, WeeWoo (a young adult male) spotted a predator — a jackal. He stood on his hind legs, gave a high-pitched bark (an airborne predator alarm). The mob scattered into burrows. For a snake (ground predator), he gave a different, urgent chattering sound. The researchers noted: Meerkats have referential alarm calls (specific calls for specific dangers). True / False / Not Given (e
Part 3: The Pup’s Lesson Later, WeeWoo took his little sister, Pip, to hunt scorpions. Pip was afraid. WeeWoo gently removed the scorpion’s stinger (a teaching behavior called “sting removal”) and gave it to Pip. She learned. The study showed: Meerkats actively teach their young — one of the few non-human animals to do so.
Part 4: The Sentinel At noon, WeeWoo climbed a termite mound — acting as sentinel (guard). He gave a soft, continuous “watchman’s call” meaning “All safe.” Others foraged. When danger came, he stopped singing — triggering instant flight. The data proved: Sentinel duty is cooperative, not selfish.
How to use this story for exam practice
- Read the story twice — visualize WeeWoo and Pip.
- Cover the IELTS table and try to recall: What is cooperative breeding? What alarm call for jackal?
- Predict answers before reading the real passage. If the real passage mentions “meerkat pups learn by watching adults remove stingers” — you already know the answer: Teaching.
- Spot paraphrases — the story uses “urgent chattering” — the exam might say “staccato bark” for the same snake alarm.
Answer Key with Explanations
| Question | Answer | Explanation | |----------|--------|-------------| | 1 | False | Paragraph B: “different frequencies for aerial versus terrestrial threats” → warns against both. | | 2 | False | Paragraph C: “tracked 14 mobs” → more than ten. | | 3 | False | Paragraph D: “subordinates began reproducing within weeks” → they can breed if alpha removed. | | 4 | True | Paragraph E: “smaller mobs had higher juvenile mortality (57% vs. 22% in large mobs)”. | | 5 | True | Paragraph F: “benefits … consistently outweigh costs, as modelled by Hamilton’s rule (rB > C)”. | | 6 | G | “informs organisational psychology … corporate risk management strategies” → business practices. | | 7 | C | “teaching, once considered uniquely human, occurs in meerkats … ‘scaffolding’ behaviour”. | | 8 | D | “elevated stress cortisol, which suppresses ovulation”. | | 9 | E | “correlates with rainfall variability … smaller mobs had higher juvenile mortality”. | | 10 | inclusive fitness | Paragraph B: “inclusive fitness theory resolves this paradox”. | | 11 | scaffolding | Paragraph C: “This ‘scaffolding’ behaviour increased pup survival”. | | 12 | body mass | Paragraph F: “reduces helper body mass by 12%”. | | 13 | terrestrial alarms | Paragraph G: “broadcasting terrestrial alarms deters meerkats from crossing roads”. |